


My beautiful beast

by Easyan, Yra



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate universe-Police/Gangs, Bad-ass everyone, Bisexuality, Eren isn't doe ;), Homosexuality, Human Experimentation, Levi in denial, M/M, Multi, Nice Kenny Ackerman, REALLY dysfonctionnal family but it's a loving family, Referenced Drug Use, Step-Brothers, The people called Titans are part of a gang, Titan Shifters, Titan shifters are little berserker shits, Uniform Kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:35:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9663809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Easyan/pseuds/Easyan, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yra/pseuds/Yra
Summary: Welcome to Paradiz!One of the most powerful countries of the Mare world. A beautiful country... Nah, forget it. It's awful.In here is written Levi Ackerman's story and Eren Jaeger's. The strongest man of the Liberty Wings brigade and the kid in which a demon lurks.Discover about their fights and hopes, victories and defeats. About their love and numerous secrets. The schemes plotted by the people surrounding them. Discover them. Discover their only goal: Exterminate EACH and EVERY Titan living on this Earth.You might have seen two other stories named My Beautiful Beast. That's normal. The first one is in French and is the original version. There's been a first traduction that aborted. Now here's my traduction.Easyan is a really good writer with wonderful stories. I'm really happy that her stories will now be accessible to a larger audience.Hope you guys like it!





	1. When the Hooligan meets the little Beast (part 1)

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [My Beautiful Beast](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8270432) by [Easyan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Easyan/pseuds/Easyan). 



> Heya!  
> This is a HUGE project I am starting right now. Translating 291,934 French words into English? That's gonna be one HELL of a challenge but I'm ready to do it. I've read the whole story and it AMAZING. I wouldn't have accepted to traduct it if it wasn't so I really hope you guys will like it as much as I did.  
> I'll release chapters as fast as I can but as you probably all can understand, life tends to be hectic in ways that are sometimes out of our control so I won't promise anything.  
> Enjoy :)

****

 

 

 

**Fanart made by Kizzbloo (My Honey Love!)**

 

 

 

**This world is a dunghill**

   To hell with all the poets and nature lovers. 

  

  Reality is much more pragmatic. Abandon all hope of one-day finding beauty in this race. Humans are animals. Unfortunately, they're animals smarter than average. They have an amazing way of twisting words to their advantage, rationalise evil to justify injustice, keep an impeccable appearance, and use the persuasive power of numbers to their advantage, making humans the only species that can be harmful to the environment, fauna, flora, and humanity itself. Mankind is a plague. The most virulent one ever created. Humans are constantly evolving but they remain the same. Inhabited by the same passion for life and primal selfishness that allowed it to prosper and colonise every part of the globe.

  If the world is a dunghill then Mankind is its fungus. It consumes it, destroys it from within and ingests it to grow and build. That is, until the ecosystem that allowed it to grow eventually collapse on itself, exhausted. And then it will return to nothingness.

  That was how the 15-year-old Levi Ackermann saw the world. Hopeless. Dirty. Dark. Disappointing. A world on the brink of implosion, where only a fierce, selfish desire to survive, despite everything, dominated. Whoever wanted the most would get the furthest. That was all.

 

* * *

 

  "Hey! Levi! Another round!" Levi slowly looked up at the man, Earl, who swayed dangerously even while holding himself on the bar. The teenager finished quietly wiping the glass he held carefully between his fingers (he wouldn't stop polishing until he could see his reflection in it) before saying slowly, "No, Earl. That's it for tonight. Your guts are already filled more than the whore's vagina who makes the hustler on the thirteenth avenue. Go home.”

  “What!? Who are ye to tell me what I gotta do, huh kid!? Who d'ye think ye are!? I gonna ... I'm gonna ... " Earl had knocked his pint against the counter and pointed a trembling finger on the teenager.

Levi barely raised his eyebrow, "Just a small reminder: You break something, you pay for it. Same rule for everybody. Even though Kenny might like you, you'll pay. So, maybe you should watch out..."

The man stuttered." Ye little shit…"

  Another regular, far less drunk than Earl slid an arm under the armpit of Earl and pulled him away from the counter ''Easy Earl! Have ye forgotten what happens to those who piss Lev' off? D'ye wanna end up in the hospital? Come on, let it go, mate. Let's go somewhere else." The second man Dragged Earl away without letting the other complain.

  Levi quietly resumed his polishing.

 

* * *

 

 

  As far as the teenager could remember, he has always lived in the slums of the city. Both his father and his uncle were members of the most vicious and feared gang of the capital (and of the country). The kind of man that was always missing. Men he had only seen once or twice in his life. Why did they come? Because of his mother. She was sick and had only recently received her diagnostic. The men tried to decide which one of them would take care of her. In the end? They said Gena was perfectly able to take care of herself for the time being and they left. 

  Levi's mother was both mentally and physically weak. The poor woman had never truly been able to take care of him or herself. Levi had therefore grown like a weed, feeding on the leftover foods left at his door by one of his uncle's friend. The man probably did it in exchange for a service or to pay a small debt. The child grew up with all the mud and spit that the locals threw at his face every time he took the decision to leave their shabby apartment to go get some fresh air. 

  Eventually, their tiny room in ruins became his whole universe. And at the centre of it was his mother.

  His mother was not a bad woman. Levi would often talk to her when she found an ounce of sanity or when her pain was low enough that she didn't feel like screaming obscenities at her son all day. It was she who had prevented him from behaving like stray dogs, even though he often fought them over stale bread. His entire world was centred around her... until she let out her last breath. He spent a whole week with her slowly decaying body until his uncle's friend foud out about it.

  With the death of his mother, Levi’s world collapsed for the first time.

  His uncle Kenny Ackermann suddenly reappeared to bury his dead sister. He was alone, which could only mean one thing: his father had died too, and Kenny was his last relative. At that very moment, Levi's life flipped upside down.

  For the better as well as for the worse.

 

* * *

 

  Kenny never had the intention to take care of the kid. There wasn't ANYTHING paternal about himself (he wasn’t even sure he was human, so a father...) and he had other things to take care of (he did have one hell of a busy job). It could also be specified that he was at the very least 150% responsible for the death of the boy’s father (what do you want, he didn't choose his work ethics, now did he?). But when he came to bury the cadaver of his late sister (peace to her damned soul, you poor ignorant, you were far too innocent to live in this world) he faced the most pitiful five-years-old he had ever seen. Levi was indeed pitiful but... he had inherited his eyes. The Ackermann's eyes, dead and soulless. Blue-gray, a steely gaze. The eyes of a demon. The same eyes that Kenny had himself as a child.  It was then that Kenny decided to take the brat with him.

  Caring for Levi was by no means a hard task. Levi was not a difficult child. Hell, he may have not even been a child at all. Even when the boy had come to understand, and in the worst of ways, what was his uncle's job (Exterminator. No, not rats. Rather, let's say, by contract. People who hadn't paid their debts, troublemakers. Kenny was good at that game.) Levi did not blink or flinch. He simply watched the corpse with dead eyes, the way you look at a rock on the side of the road.

  The incident happened on a night where Kenny had brought his dead-weight along (yeah, that was Kenny's nickname for the boy) to take care of a little problem. The motel in which he would have had to abandon the kid cost at least two long nights of good drinking ... and you see, he was many things, but he wasn't the kind of monster that would leave a five-year-old in a shabby motel for three days straight... 

  After seeing the latent potential of his nephew for his profession ("Those who aren't bothered by a bloodbath shall one day bathe in a sea of corpses" Great-grandfather Dixit Ackermann) Kenny finally took the decision train the kid in the hope of finally having either a "comrade" or at the very least a somewhat skillful underling to replace him on the days when he'd want some rest (there was no real vacation scheduled in his profession, so it wouldn't hurt to give himself the luxury of a good time's rest if he had the chance, right?). Kenny had thus taught the kid as Kenny's father would have had. He taught Levi to survive in all circumstances, to have the will and the strength needed to take anything he wanted straight out of people's pocket, be it women, money, fear, power, food, riches in all kind. 

  Levi had been an excellent student.

  So, excellent that Kenny had taken a liking to this little moth. 

  Affection and all that crap messes with a man's mind, doesn't it? For Kenny, it was the end of it all. His life of crime and debauchery. His devotion for the gang, even though it had been more or less strong, simply faded away... The gang was already falling apart, though, beaten and replaced by a younger gang. A more vicious one, and a stronger one. The Titans. Lucky for Kenny and Levi, the Ackermans were as known in the area as the Grim Reaper. It was even said that they were its worthy heirs. It easily explains why nobody ever tried to get in Kenny's way when he decided to open his own bar. it became a neutral territory where important matters were discussed (information, alliances, declaration of wars between gangs as well as peace treaty...). Kenny had somehow found a way to lead a somewhat peaceful and normal life amongst the rats of the city. Levi was ten years old.

  It doesn't mean Levi became a good boy, though.

  However, from then on, the boy received education. And he always kept himself clean (he was bordering on manic but it was better to not tell him that or else you'd risk losing all your teeth). His education didn't stop him from forming his very own gang in less time than it'd take for a starved man to drink a glass of water. With a blond named Furlan and a redhead named Isabel he had taken possession of several blocks of the neighbourhood at the age of twelve years and had control over ALL the trades going on at those places. The kids, of course, took a percentage of the profits (Farlan was certainly a very bright kid, one of the "Whoever wants the most will get the furthest" kind of people).

  It took two years before the great Titans took notice of Levi and his little games. When it happened, Kenny had to use every ounce of influence he had to save Levi's life after the boy went on a killing spree to avenge Isabel and Furlan (the young Ackerman had succeeded him to decimate a third of the Titans fighters present in the capital). 

  Levi's world collapsed for the second time.

  It then took the arrival of director Erwin Smith for Levi to find a semblance of stability. Fresh out of the most prestigious schools, the young police chief offered Levi a new way of getting rid of the Titans. 

  Education. Justice. The light. 

  Kenny could never have done better. So he let this tall bizarre blonde with his empty azure eyes take care of the brain (or was it the soul?) of his nephew. Levi then found a group in which he felt like he belonged, the rookie's brigade. Also known as the Freedom Wings. An entirely new project created by Erwin Smith to fight against the alarming crime rate in the country. Its first objective was to make the capital safer by using the most dangerous and brilliant young criminals the country had to offer. they would be educated and given an another chance in life. Levi then somehow managed to make some new friends. Hange Zoe (a crazy kid who had managed to scare the almighty Kenny Ackerman) Moblit Berner, Petra Ral, Oluo Bozado, Gunther Schultz, Eld Jin... Kenny probably forgot some of them. He merited credit for remembering the ones who basically invaded his apartment on an almost daily basis.

 

 

How he didn't expect his world to turn upside, Kenny couldn't explain but, looking back, it should have been clear. Ackermans had been killers for generations and now, one of them would soon become a policeman.

 

* * *

 

  Levi came to help at the bar when he had the chance.

  Not because he wanted to give a helping hand to this scum that called himself his uncle but because he didn't want to owe him anything. 

  That night was just a normal night. Earl's aggressivity had been nothing surprising, nor was it an isolated event. It wasn't an uncommon event at the Ackerman's bar. After Earl, Levi had to throw out three drunkards and break up two fights between shit-faced individuals before he even reached a normal's night quota of violence. 

 

  It was four am when Levi finally took out the trash. Everything inside was spotless as well. 

  Years of experience in the art of not sleep at night coupled with his hard days of training made Levi ignorant of the benefits of sleeping. Hange liked to say that it was why Levi was the only one to grow so little of their entire unit. Joke that Levi took with a shrug and a colourful answer, most of the time resembling "As long as I can still kick your asses to the point where you start looking like baboons, I don't give a shit about my height" though it was WAY worse when Levi himself said it.

  The boy stretched and his whole back cracked and winced as though someone tried to play some sort of terrifying melody with it.

 

  It was at that moment that he heard them.

  There, in the narrow back alley, still overwhelmed by shadows, a terribly violent fight had broken out. Three men and a child. As surprising as it may have seen, the child wasn't the one in trouble. Levi approached slowly, intrigued.

  The boy was armed with an iron bar he obviously knew how to use. While the men were trying to catch and immobilise him, he used his small size and agility to slide between their fingers before striking with lightning speed. He knew what parts to hit to make the men bend in half from the pain. Calves, ankles, crotch, any area painful enough to make them bend a little before he delivered the strongest blow he could to the back of their head or face. He had already managed to knock one of them (the guy was literally pissing blood, collapsed on the ground). The child was covered in haemoglobin. Levi couldn't tell whether it was the kid's or his victims'. The child attacked without any hesitation. But beyond his surprise to see such a young kid (five? Six years old?) put three adults to their knees (although they looked about to pass out from how drunk they were) the one thing that made Levi so fascinated was the kid's eyes.

  Two beautiful eyes where blue and green intertwined, giving birth to the most mesmerising eyes he'd ever seen. Two burning jewels that petrified him. 

  The man on the ground regained consciousness and groggily grabbed the kid's ankle. The man pulled hard and the kid fell as he was about to break another one the men's nose. The one who was just saved from the kid slid his hand in his jacket. Levi knew he needed to do something. In no time he was next to the armed man. He kicked his chin with a perfectly calculated blow and the man lost consciousness. He dropped the gun.The other two ran away without taking the fallen guy with them.  

  In the time it took for Levi to regain his balance, the kid had the gun in his hands, pointing it at the adolescent.His hands were not shaking. His eyes still had the same fire in them, glowing on his bloodied face. 

  Levi was now completely immobile. He acted exactly as though the gun pointed at his chest was nothing more than a toy. 

  "Oy. Kid. Put that thing down, you're gonna hurt yourself." 

  The child instead pointed the gun a little higher, showing he had absolutely no intention to comply. Levi sighed: 

  "You think I would have knocked this guy down if I wasn't there to help?"

  A glimmer of hesitation crossed the kid's eyes, his shoulders relaxed for a moment and that's all it took for Levi to jump on the kid. The cornered child pulled the trigger before the teen even had the time to take the gun from him. His wrist twisted painfully in Levi's hand, the kid bit his lip to prevent tears from rolling down his cheeks: "There's a safety, brat. Also, you'd only have gotten my thigh... before dislocating your shoulder. This kind of toy ain't really suitable for people your age... "

  The growling and struggling child was trying to set himself free from the teenager.

  "Why were you fighting these guys?"

  In response, the boy bit Levi's hand so hard he tore a piece of skin. By reflex, Levi dealt with him by knocking the gun's handle on the kid's head. The child collapsed, unconscious. The teen swore lowly. Not only did his hand hurt like hell, now he also felt bad for hurting the brat

 

  He lifted the boy in his arms and addressed the barely awake man on the ground 

 "Tell your friends that this stray dog is owned by Ackerman. If someone even tries to touch a hair of his head, I'll skin the bastard alive and use his balls' epiderm as a glass mount. I'm sure it's gonna be a hit."

  He did not turn around to see if the man had registered his words. After all, he had seen his non-injured eye grow wide as he'd heard the name Ackerman. Reputation sometimes was a blessing.

Levi walked towards the back door of the bar, which he had left open. He had absolutely no idea what he would do with this kid. 

 He simply hoped he wasn't infected with cholera or parasites... 


	2. When the Hooligan meets the little Beast (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eren and Levi meet for real

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray, second chapter! My life is a hectic mess right now, you guys got no idea but here we go! Hope it's as good as I think it is!

  Eren opened his eyes.

  He tried to get up but was forced back down on the pillow under him because of the strong dizziness that clouded his head. He groaned in pain. Eren felt as though his skull had been cracked in half. Also, the first kick he'd received (he let that one hit him so that his opponent would lower his guard) had probably broken a rib or two. His upper lip was slightly bleeding still and he was totally sure that his whole body was covered in countless bruises. 

However, those were nothing. He was used to pain greater than this.

  No, what was bothering him was the unfamiliar environment surrounding him. He turned his head despite the pain so that he would be able to look around. He was lying on a couch, a pretty comfortable one at that, especially considering how ancient it looked. Was he in some kind of resting room? There were a few lockers on one of the white walls. The floor was made as a checkerboard, in black and white tiles. An old wood table stood in the middle of the room and a boy was sitting on one of the chairs surrounding it. Probably a teenager. Their eyes meet. When Eren recognised the steely blue eyes, he remembered what had just happened.

  Panicked, he tried to get up.

In no time at all, the teenager pinned his to the couch.

  "Oy, kid, I ain't exactly an expert when it comes to this but I think one of your ribs is broken. You'd better stay calm."

  Eren's heart was beating fast. The teenager's deep and low voice, coupled with his resting bitch face and dead stare sent warning signals to Eren. He was being  _ordered_ not to move. Eren totally stopped moving and locked his teeth. If only he still had his iron bar... The teen observed him for a while and then sighed.

  "At least breathe or something..."

  Eren took an inspiration. The teen let his shoulder go and grabbed a chair so he could sit closer to the injured boy. Said boy noticed the first aid kit on the table and realised he'd been patched up. And with a lot of care, might he add.

  Did the teen patch him up for real? After knocking him out? Why?

 Eren gave him a suspicious look as he took place on the chair.

"So, since I kinda saved your life, don't you think I deserve some kind of explanation..?"

  Eren didn't feel like telling him anything. Who was dumb enough to trust the guy who knocked out an armed man with a single kick before hitting the boy with the handle of a gun? Certainly not Eren. The teenager got mad.

"Hey, you kid, I'm talking to you! Don't even pretend you're mute or I'll rip your tongue outta your mouth!"

The threat slightly frightened the boy. Teenager or not, the guy was clearly serious. Eren threw a vicious stare at the older boy.

"Why did you heal me if you wanna rip my tongue?"

For a very short second, the teen appeared surprised of the boy's bravado.

Said boy immediately regretted said bravado when the raven guy smirked. 

"My name's Levi. What's yours, you brat?

-I-I'm Eren..."

 The boy heard his answer before he even thought about answering. He once more regretted talking. How could he have thought, even for a moment, that telling his real name to a stranger was a good idea? 

"Well, Eren,  the guys you've battered up in the back alley were pretty dangerous folks. D'you even know what kind of shitfest you've put yourself into?

-Duh, of course I know they're dangerous. That's why I want to kill them. That way, they won't hurt people anymore..."

Eren wanted to add that because of Levi, he hadn't been able to execute his plan but he guessed it probably wouldn't be bright to accuse his saviour. 

"Huh. How old are you? Four?

-I'm five and a half, dummy!

-And you're talking about murdering people?

-They deserved to die."

Eren was now trembling.

He remembered very clearly the night where his mother had gotten home with her clothes torn up and choc written on her face. Carla Jeager was a strong woman. A really strong one. Despite her job as a hostess in a bar, she was an excellent mother that did everything in her power to ensure her son had everything he needed. Food, love, warm clothes, medication, as much safety as she could provide. However, that one night, she couldn't hide how distressed she was, nor how hurt. She went to the bathroom, her legs feeling like they were made of wool. She feel in the shower, under the burning water that couldn't make her feel clean and cried as she'd never cried before.

Eren had asked her countless questions, tears barely staying in his eyes. Without knowing EXACTLY what was happening, he understood that something bad had happened. Since his mother had only cried without telling him anything, he fought back his tears until his eyes were somewhat dried up. He then helped his mother to clean herself up before doing his best to dress up her shallow but numerous wounds. He'd never forget the marks that were covering her body, and neither would he forget the feeling of being useless. He swore he'd protect his mum with all his might. He was her only ally. He had to protect her, just like she always protected him.

The child had then started to follow his mother even at her job, unable to leave her alone. Carla apologised to her boss, a bearded drag queen everyone called mama. Mama fell for Eren's 'wonderful emeralds'. Eren spent every night in the club and escorted his mother all the way to their house every night for two months. However, when he started falling asleep in school, Carla had to find some kind of compromise with her hot-headed son.

From this day on, Eren only had permission to play the faithful knight twice a week, on Tuesday and Friday nights. He knew he was only allowed to do so because his mother thought it helped him with his insecurities. Ever since her aggression, she couldn't help her boy with his messy and explosive emotions. She did felt bad for letting him see the kind of world in which she worked, and Eren sensed it. Eren sensed her distress, all her guilt and worries and so he accepted her proposition. Because he wanted his mother to feel better.

He still followed his mother, though. As discreetly as he could manage, which was EXTREMELY discreetly, he'd watch over his mum as she walked outside. They lived on the ground floor of an old building. All he had to do was to slip through his very small window and lie in bed before his mother came in to check on him when she was over with work. The old lady who was supposed to watch over the boy at night was nothing more than a sleepy woman that was bordering on blind, meaning she couldn't differentiate a few pillows and the kid. His perfect organisation had allowed him to keep on playing his role of bodyguard to perfection... until this night.

 One night,  _they_ came to the club. When Mama threw them outside shouting at them that they'd better come back when Carlita (Carla's hostess name) wouldn't be there. She had told her boss what happened (they, of course, pretended it didn't happen, without being even slightly convincing). Eren, hidden behind a garbage can, had heard everything. He understood. He understood that these guys were the monsters that had hurt his mum. They were the men that haunted her dreams. The ones that woke both of them up at night, when his mum would wake up screaming, alone in her bed, on her very few nights off. It was their fault that she trembled when she took her son to school in the morning. Their fault for her dead smile and tired eyes.

  He swore to himself he'd make them pay. That he'd make sure they'd never,  _ever_ be able to hurt anyone else. Never again.

  He almost did it...

  "They hurt my mum! They deserved to die! How can I kill them now? They'll know me, they'll know I'm not weak..."

  Eren was crying his eyes out. He didn't know whether they were tears of sadness or anger or stress and to be quite honest, he didn't care. He wanted to scream and punch something. Did he just put his mother in danger? At least, he made sure she'd get home safely that night. When he saw how the three men had looked at Mama despite her anger, even though she'd done everything to look menacing, Eren had understood that the men would do it again. He knew they'd hurt his mum again. And he had been right. All he had to do was wait until they came back when Carla was working. 

  All he had to do was wait until they came back when Carla was working. He trained, prepared a plan... And all for nothing.

  The teenager's voice brought him back to reality.

  "Your mum, is she a hostess at the club on the street?"

  The kid nodded his head to fast and his head started to spin like crazy. Levi held the boy's shoulder to prevent him from falling down the couch.

  "Whoa there, easy, brat."

  Eren then realised the teen's hand was surprisingly big, considering his small frame.

  "Why didn't you go see the police?

  -Huh? The  _police_?"

  The idea in itself appeared foreign to the boy. He'd reacted exactly as though Levi had told him that winged unicorns that shat rainbows existed. Here, in the poorest parts of Shiganshina, the police was nothing more than another gang.

  "Anh. Anyways, if those guys bother you again, just tell me.

-What? But, why?"

  The teen tried with all his might to not show how exasperated as he really was.

  "I'm in the police."

  It wasn't entirely true, after all, he was just a trainee, but it was somewhat the same thing, right? 

  "I don't believe you. Policemen are assholes.

-Watch your mouth, brat! Even though I would've said the same thing when I was your age. I'm not the same as those other cops, you know why? I'm a _super_ cop.

-But you're not a grown up...

-Did you forget? I'm a super cop.

-... and you're really small..."

  Levi slapped the back of the kid's head before realising it might have been the most stupid idea he's had in his life. The kid could have had a concussion for all he knew. Eren twisted his face in pain as he held the back of his skull. He shouted before his stomach let out an embarrassingly loud rumble. The kid turned bright pink and put his hands on his belly, avoiding Levi's face at all cost. After having stared at the kid for a while, the teen got up.

"If you dare try to run away, you annoying brat, I swear I'll find you and skin you alive..."

  Levi left. Eren slowly sat up and looked around. It might have been a cellar. There was only one door, which was the one Levi had got through. Behind it there were stairs, probably leading to the surface. Eren thought about Levi's clothing. Black pants, white shirt and a black vest. What kind of job did this Levi have? How old was he? He then started to think solely of the teenager. He'd knocked out a guy with a single kick and he moved quite fast... was he some kind of fighter, like Mr Chen from the third floor? Levi did have something dangerous in his eyes and his shiny black hair had a clean undercut at the back and sides of his hair, just like the soldiers Eren saw when he was younger, when he first got to Shiganshina, a year ago.

  Levi came back with a sandwich.

  "Go sit at the table, brat. There's no way you're gonna get crumbs on my couch."

  Eren tried to get up but he stumbled on his own feet when a terribly sharp pain pierced through his abdomen. His vision got blurry for a few seconds. 

  "Oy, kid, are you alright? Can you walk? D'you wanna go to the hospi...

-No! Not the hospital! I heal really really fast, I'm fine!"

  As if to prove what he just said, Eren made his way to the table and sat on one of the chairs without wincing in pain. As for Levi, he didn't exactly know what to think nor to do. He'd never seen a kid like him. He knew he'd never been much of a kid himself but... A pair of blazing green eyes brought him back. He put the plate in his hand in front of the kid.

  "It's two nights old so I'm not..."

  Eren was already devouring the sandwich. At the very first bite, his eyes doubled in size and his face brightened up. He pointed the sandwich and asked

  "What is it? 

-It's... uh, it's bread? Some slightly too old lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and smoked ham?"

  Eren looked as though he was in paradise.

  "I... it's so good!"

  Levi only wanted to tell him it was almost mouldy but he just couldn't do it. Not with how happy Eren was. After all, he remembered all too well the time when all he ate were leftovers from some shabby friend of his uncle's or what he found in the garbage. At the time, this kind of sandwich would've been wonderful to him too.

  Eren's mum didn't have many choices. Variety and quality, when it came to food, wasn't one of her priorities. Warm clothes for the winter, medicine and bandages, the rent, those were her priorities. Levi could guess that much. He knew a hostess probably didn't make that much.

  Levi sat in front of Eren and watched him as he ate his sandwich. When Levi put a glass of orange juice in front of the kid, he felt as though he'd just became a deity with how much gratitude and admiration shone in the kid's eyes. Eren took the glass in his hands with trembling hands and tasted the juice with apprehension showing on his face. A very large smile appeared on the child's face as he recognised what it was

  "Orange juice! It's my favourite! I'm always so happy when Mama gives me some!"

  Levi felt weird and mumbled something that was supposed to be a sentence. 

  "Hurry up and finish your food, brat. I've gotta take you back to your mother. She's probably worried sick."

  As soon as these words left Levi's mouth, Eren's face froze. The teenager guessed he had been right (even though most of the times parents didn't give a shit about their kids in Shiganshina).

 

* * *

 If he was being entirely honest with himself, Levi would've rather bring the kid to a hospital. You know, just to make sure he wouldn't die on him but since he couldn't do it without the kid's mother approbation... In Shiganshina, everyone had something to hide. The kid's reaction made him think that his mum was no exception to this rule. The two of them could be illegal immigrants, chased by some really dangerous people (well, dangerous was relative. The kid himself was one hell of a dangerous one) or maybe they were just too poor to be able to pay for the care. It might even have been all three problems.

  Worried the kid might have had some difficulties to keep up with him, Levi observed him for a little while. He was surprised like hell when he saw how cheerful and well the kid seemed.  _I heal really really fast_. Yeah. That much was pretty obvious now to the teenager. He couldn't help to wonder exactly how fast the kid healed, though. 

  From what he could tell, the kid really was guiding him to his home. Levi didn't know when he'd gained the kid's trust but Eren seemed to be absolutely convinced Levi didn't want to do anything to him... well, anything bad. Levi knew he didn't look like a good guy, even for an adult. His black hair, his droopy blue-grey eyes and the menacing aura that seemed to envelop him in some kind of dark fog usually lead people to be afraid or at the very least wary of the teen. His small frame didn't change that fact, nor did it affect it. When you added to his appearance his family name... People changed sidewalks to avoid Levi. Not Eren.

  Not Eren.

  The kid hadn't reacted differently than he would have with another stranger. Even though he knew he scared the kid at least once at some point, Eren never let his fear take control. He instead used it as fuel to feed his anger.

  When the boys got closer to Eren's home, they heard voices. Most of them calling for Eren. 

  Before he even took notice of it, Eren had leapt forward and was running ahead. Levi followed him in a relaxed jogging and caught up with the kid just in time to see him jump in a woman's arms. The brown haired woman hugged the kid very tight and Levi felt as though one of the kid's broken ribs was about to pierce his lungs.

  "Oy, easy! The kid's hurt!"

  Levi had talked without thinking. At first, all he'd wanted to do was make sure he was back home safe and sound and just forget about it all. He didn't want anything to do with the kid... well, maybe? One way or another, it was too late to think about that. Everyone's eyes were on him now. There were so many people... neighbours, Levi guessed, all dressed differently. Some in pyjamas, other in work clothes but all there to try and find the kid. Levi swore and froze where he stood. 

  "Mum, it's Levi. He helped me come back."

  The woman plunged her eyes in Levi's. The teenager felt disappointed when he saw here eyes since they weren't as flamboyant as her son's. They, however, were of a soft and welcoming golden hue that made her look like a Saint. As for the rest of her face, she looked just like an older version of her son. Her lips, eye shape, cheekbones... She was beautiful. She then turned towards the people behind her.

  "Thank you so much, everyone. Thank you for helping me find him...

-Aw, it was nothing Carla."

  Most people seemed to agree with the middle-aged man. As for the others, they grumbled half-heartedly that Carla should punish her son as he deserved. 

  "Please make sure he's not hurt, though."

  Another man added that if the kid was to do that again, he'd find him himself and would skin him alive (Levi felt like that man was someone he'd like to have as a friend). Everyone added their own little comment before leaving the mother and child alone.

  Levi took notice that nobody never even seemed to think that they could have contacted the police. At that moment more than ever, Levi understood Erwin's work would be harder than he'd ever thought. Just gaining people's trust would take an eternity, so saving them...

  Carla's attention went back to the teenager. She looked at him before greeting him with respect and emotion.

  "Thank you! Thank you so much for bringing my baby back alive...

-I... huh... thanks, I guess." 

  Levi couldn't help but think that this woman was a gentle and caring, without any doubt, a good mother and also one hell of a good person. He decided, despite the murdering look in the kid's eyes, that he'd tell her about what her child did. She then addressed her kid.

  "Eren, I'm so, so glad that you're alive... that's the only reason why I'm not punishing you right now."

  Levi saw the child tremble in terror. Levi had used his " _from the depths of hell voice"_ (Hange) and the kid hadn't even been impressed. So scratch what he said earlier. Carla wasn't a gentle and caring person. Hell no, she clearly was some scary spawn of the devil.

  "Please, Levi, come inside with us. I can already guess what happened but I'm curious to hear your side of the story."

  In all honest Levi didn't know much about what happened and he had absolutely no intention of telling Carla the details of the fight. He just wanted to tell her what kind of danger she and her kid could be in.

  "... so Eren had a lot of luck, but it won't be the same next time." 

  The child was sitting on his knees, in Seiza position. He kept his eyes locked to the floor. The apartment they lived in was of Japanese style, with tatamis, low tables and sliding doors. A shabby apartment that Carla decorated and kept in a perfectly fine place to raise a child. She clearly took care of her home and son with everything she had. It also could be seen that she lived alone with Eren.

  Carla stayed mute for a moment before her shoulders dropped.

  "Eren, oh dear god, I am so, so sorry. For this life, for your fear, for... for so many things...

-No, mommy, you did nothing! It's all my fault. I won't do it again, I won't go through the window, I..."

    Levi didn't know where to put himself anymore. If this overload of emotion was to last any longer, he'd imitate the boy and slip through the window himself.

  Carla shook her head at her son's words.

"No, honey, you were trying to protect me. You sensed I was weak, you wanted to help your mother. To protect me since I couldn't do it myself. You're such a good son... I'll stop praying for a miracle. Nothing like that will ever happen again, I swear. From this day on, I'll take our future in my hands. You deserve the very best, Eren."

    Maybe that with some speed and stealth, Levi would be able to get out of there before they noticed...

  Bad luck for him Carla remembered the teenager existed and asked him:

  "How can I make sure those men never come back here? 

-Hum. I think Eren bea... I mean, I think they learned their lesson. Also, I told them what would happen if they ever showed up again."

  Carla frowned.

  "Thank you... Levi, is it?" he nodded "but how old are you? Twelve?

-... I'm fifteen.

-Oh, I see. Sorry."

  Even though he'd been crying his eyes out just a few seconds ago, the kid chuckled. Levi really felt like kicking his ass but thought it'd be best if he didn't do it. Carla kept on.

  "What I mean is that you're just a child."

  Levi sighed. He didn't want to have to use it, but he'd have to use his trump card. His family name.

  "Maybe, but not to them. To them, I'm more of an Ackerman than a teen.

-Am I... Am I supposed to know who the Ackermans are?"

  ...Well, Levi just received the confirmation that the small family wasn't from Shiganshina.

  "Actually, yes, but that's not really important. All you need to know is that my family name is a pretty good reason for these men to never bother you again. If you're still worried, I guess I can escort you every night until everything is really over.

-Ah, I see. You're  _that_ type. I don't think I should accept your help... I just told Eren he'd have a decent life and now I can count on some sort of mafioso's help?

-Mum, you don't understand. Levi is a _super_ cop! He's not a bad guy, I swear."

  Carla raised a doubtful brow.

  Levi's heart almost broke when he saw how child-like Eren really was when he was sitting on his mother's lap. He couldn't, no, wouldn't imagine what kind of life lead such a cheerful kid to the extreme length of violence he'd just seen.

  "A _super_ cop?

-Well, technically, no yet but... I'm a student at a special police training school. It opened very recently but it's making people talk. Erwin Smith, the principal, wants to reform the police so that it's services will really be helpful. Our country is... well, it's not really all rainbow and sunshine, is it? Erwin want's to purge it and rebuilt it, in a certain way. The Wings of Liberty Brigade will be his strongest 'weapon'. I'm the best of my class, and maybe even the best of the school, even though that's got nothing to do with why I offer you my protection.

-Then why would you do this for us, Levi, if not for your ideals?

  It was such a good question that Levi just froze on the spot.

  Why did he want to help them?

  His mind brought him back a few hours ago. In a second he saw Eren's eyes for the first time again. Their hypnotising fire. The way they made him gasp for air because of their intensity. Back there in this small back alley, where he meet this night creature. This little demon in human form. The boy, curled up against his mother, happy, safe... Yes, the beast living inside of him was merely sleeping, the proof of it was the small flame in the child's eyes.

  Eren had locked his eyes on him. He was waiting for the answer that wasn't coming, just like Carla.

  Why did he want to help them?

  "Because I want to."

  And it was true. Before that day, he'd always seen Erwin's project as a way to get revenge and exterminate all Titans. It was the first time that he'd ever felt like his actions could have a bigger purpose than getting his revenge. If Erwin's project ever became reality, Levi could really help rebuilt everything that was broken. The Brigade could give this country its dignity, its pride, its liberty, the security that it lost a long, long time ago. 


	3. Let's try to become good people (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO. I'm late.  
> Yep.  
> Anyways, I'll try to translate the next chapter sooner and hopefully have it out by Friday since I might have enough time to do that. Maybe, so no promises.  
> Enjoy :)

  "Hahahahaha, ah, aha... pfff HAHAHA!!"

  Hange was almost dying, laughing as she was. As for Eld, he was red with shame.

  "Stop laughing! That's not what I wanted to say! Aish, come on..."

  As for Moblit, he was trying, pretty much in vain, to calm Hange down a bit. She was practically suffocating at that point. Oluo hit his fist on the wooden table. Technically, they were all there to do their homework. Technically. Anyways, Oluo's outbursts of anger on the table moved it as well as Petra's sheet (Petra was writing on it with a pen, so I let you imagine the mess it made on her homework).

  "Shut the hell up! You're distracting us, you monkeys!"

  Levi almost told Oluo that he was the loudest one. However, he thought that Petra strangling him was a good enough reason to keep his mouth shut.

  "Have you seen what you've done to my sheet, you idiot? Look, Oluo, look!"

  Gunther offered the red-haired girl some white-out but she ignored him and simply kept on strangling the guy next to her.

  Moblit finally found a way to calm Hange a little. Levi put on his jacket. Petra, who'd let go off Oluo's throat a few seconds ago before her friend fainted, asked Levi where he was going. He didn't answer. He didn't want to tell them the whole story, considering the time it'd take to do so. And he didn't want to lose any time at all. If he'd had some to spare, he'd spend it with a cup of tea or reading a good book (so what if he had boring pass-time? They were nice counterparts to his hectic schedule and the agitation of his life in general). One way or another, he'd certainly not loose his precious time to tell his pseudo-friends what the hell had happened in his life in the last two months. 

  After all, the reason he was going outside so late at night, almost every night for two months, was for only one reason. That reason was the promise he'd made that he'd escort Carla Jeager when going to work and going home.

  Every night Levi would escort Carla, Eren waited for them, hugging them in his arms. He never slept until his mum was safe at home, at four or five in the morning (the old lady had as much control over the kid as she had over her bladder, which meant not much at all). Carla always hugged her son back, she'd always scold him, but she never could really be mad at him. The old lady would tell Carla that her son had slept from seven pm up until Carla got back. Levi didn't believe her.

  Eren's mother asked Levi if he wanted breakfast. He sometimes accepted, if Carla insisted a lot, or if Eren's eyed begged him to stay  _just in case the bad guys are waiting for you to come out_. Levi always had to stop himself from saying that the kid would manage just fine with his iron bar but he didn't feel like letting Carla know about the details of the kid's fight with the three men (he thought that telling a loving and caring mother that her son had almost murdered three adults in a shady back alley maybe wouldn't be such a great idea). After that, depending on if he accepted Carla's offer or not, Eren would sit on Levi's lap and fall asleep there or he would go back to bed with a sulking look on his face.

  What a great bunch of insomniac they made... Maybe Shiganshina had the power to turn people into vampires? Nighttime citizens that only just needed a few minutes of sleep before they went back outside, wandering the streets like zombies all day.

  So, to get back to Petra's question, did Levi need to tell this story to his friends? No. Especially considering that none of them would be patient enough to not stop Levi every minute with stupid and irrelevant questions... Hange's voice brought Levi back to Earth.

  "Little captain is becoming a big boy!"

  A deafening silence followed this declaration. A long moment passed before everyone's eyes lit up in the realisation of what the lunatic girl had just said. 

  Completely dazed from Hange's affirmation, Levi shook his head slightly and turned his back, heading to the door of his room. He was about to be late, and he knew Carla wouldn't wait for him. She was, in some ways, even more stubborn than her son was. What's more, she kept on telling Levi that she needed to learn to get back home by herself since she knew Levi wouldn't always be willing to escort her. His systematic answer was that two months weren't long enough to even think it was a good idea to drop her vigilance. That, of course, didn't convince her.

  His hand on the doorknob, he flinched as his friends all shouted something at the same time.

  "I don't give a fuck if you want to colonise my room to pretend you do your homework a Friday night at three am BUT if you wake Kenny up, even I won't be able to do anything to save your asses!"

  The bar closed a Friday out of three. Only one night every three weeks. Kenny held his night off as many regards as he had for his arsenal. However, none of the teenagers thought much of the threat. Oluo, still in some kind of nervous shock after what Hange had said, mumbled out "The captain has... he has a girlfriend?"

  Hange just couldn't help but fuel the fire.

  "Nah, not a girlfriend. They're together but not in a romantic way, you see. I mean, his mysterious lover is a hostess at the local club..."

  Another perfectly synchronised shout. Levi opened his door and stepped outside.

  "I'll let Kenny rip your guts out when you wake him. If you've got nothing better than bitch about other people's lives, why don't you go home and just leech of off someone else than me, huh? Also, don't you DARE leave my room in a mess. If by the time I am back it ain't spotless, I'll find a way to revive you from the ground meat Kenny will have made from you and I WILL kill you a second time. Understood?"

  Slightly shocked, everyone blurted out an "Aye, captain!" that varied deeply in strength and enthusiasm (why 'captain'? Simple. Levi was the most brilliant student in their school (they didn't really know what else to call him besides grumpy and shorty anyway)).

Levi hurried down the stairs and outside to make sure his idiotic friends wouldn't follow him. He simply knew it wasn't beyond them to do it. He left his house and walked towards the host club.

* * *

  Levi thought that he'd need to address the issue of how exactly Hange had discovered that he saw Carla (the idea that the lunatic might have followed him in the deepest moment of the night while pretending to be some sort of spy was simply terrifying even to Levi.)

  He hurried a bit when he approached the back alley in which Carla waited for him... in the company of Mama. When she saw him, the old drag-queen wiggled her hips a little.

  "Ahan! Levi-chan, here you are! Look at this sugar kitten! Ah, if only he wasn't fifteen, I'd make him see stars.

-Shut up, bearded tranny! If you really want to fuck fifteen years old kids, kill yourself and reincarnate as a real woman first!"

  Mama shivered from her head to her toes.

  "Oh, Levi, please go on! Let me hear this beautiful tenor voice of yours! Hit me with your hurtful words!"

  Levi felt (and showed it) absolutely disgusted. Here was the main reason why Levi always did everything he could to get there before Carla finished her shift. If he couldn't manage to be there exactly on time, Mama felt the need to wait with Carla. The drag-queen was stronger then she looked and so her protection wasn't meaningless at all, Levi knew that. However, he always felt blessed when he could avoid her. Carla, as usual, was deeply amused by their antics.

  "Please, Mama, leave the poor boy alone. You'll make him flee.

-Ya, that mistake has more chances of ending up with a slit throat than making me flee.

-Yeah, yeah, sure. Anyways, let's get going. I really want my boy to get at least three hours of sleep tonight."

  Carla wasn't stupid, just like Levi. She knew that Eren always waited for her at night.

  They both said their goodbyes to Mama (Carla's was polite and grateful, Levi's was more of an insult than anything else but it made Mama's heart flutter). 

  The two of them mostly walked in silence. Once Carla was done with telling Levi what kind of stupidities her son had done, she'd simply turn mute. It was the good kind of silence. They were comfortable with it, and it was quite surprising since Levi's menacing aura mostly came from his cumbersome silence (that and his resting-Imma-kill-you-bitch-face). Levi didn't remember a single night when Carla's and his silence hadn't been comfortable. However, Carla was nervous that night. Nervosity was something Levi was used to and he decided that, unless she wished to tell him about it, he wouldn't pry. After all, it could have been a small stupidity that made her anxious. Once they reached the apartment complex where she lived, Carla stopped walking.

  "Levi, I'm sorry for asking you to stay longer this morning again but I would like to talk to you. Can you stay for breakfast?"

  The serious look on her face convinced him to accept. Staying for breakfast, despite what he pretended, didn't bother him at all. Like, never. Carla made damn good scrambled eggs. He'd tried to copy them but he simply couldn't even get close to their taste. The only thing that made him uncomfortable was when the kid fell asleep on his lap, Carla cooking for him... in other words, the familiarity he felt with the family of two people. The warm feeling that spread in his heart when he was with them was what unsettled him. He didn't know how to react to that. He didn't know how to react to the fact that neither Eren nor Carla seemed to think that he shouldn't be there. He didn't know how to get used to that. Did he really want to get used to this nice feeling, anyway? In two months or so, Carla would probably already be able to get back home by herself again. Levi wouldn't need to escort her anymore, and he wouldn't have the chance to go back to the Japanese apartment.

  As they got close, Carla exclaimed: "Oh dear, Eren is so, so attached to you."

  Levi was about to ask her what she meant by that when Eren threw the door open. Dressed in blue cotton pyjamas, he jumped in Levi's arms while practically screaming "Welcome home!" Carla giggled a little and picked him up in her arms to hug him tight. 

  "Yeah, I'm back, honey, but Eren, you gotta stop this. You need to go to sleep sooner. If your teacher calls again to tell me that...

-I've slept!

-Eren...

-I swear.

-Really?

-Yep!"

  Levi frowned.

  "Ya, d'you know what happens to liars, brat?"

  Eren looked at him with his piercing ocean eyes. Levi shivered (he was getting used to it, slowly but surely. An another month and he'd probably be immune to these blue-green eyes).

  "Yes, I know what happens! They're sent to the basement!

-The... basement?"

  Carla paled significantly before leaning down towards her son. She murmured something in his ear. The boy's face suddenly got more serious and he nodded his head.

  "I made a mistake. It's hell. They are sent to hell."

  Levi didn't get to hear what Carla had said despite his incredible hearing but he knew she had just spoken another language. He was now 100% convinced the small family were immigrants.

  "Well, back to the late hour: you won't have to stay awake this long anymore." 

  Eren and Levi both looked at her with curiosity in their eyes.

  Once the old woman finally left the apartment, they sat down to eat their breakfast. Or, as usual, Carla and Levi ate breakfast while Eren sat on Levi's lap, squirming and rubbing his back against the teen's chest like a cat would've done. I didn't take long for the kid to stop moving, though. A few minutes after his mum had gotten home, he was sleeping lightly, his head using the older boy's shoulder as a pillow. Eren had started to do that a few days after Levi had met him. The first time Eren had done that, Levi hadn't known what to do, nor did he know how to tell the kid to leave him alone (without scaring him for life, that is). Levi had grown in a world where physical contact had been non-existent. Except for hurting someone. Or to kill them. The heat of Eren's small body, the feeling of his skin, his messy soft chocolate hair, Levi drank all those contacts like a starved man. As though he'd always been in need of the affection a younger brother could give him.

  When Carla came from the kitchen with eggs, rice and orange juice for the teenager and herslef. Her gaze stopped on the duo. Levi thought he saw a hint of sadness cross her eyes, but he couldn't say for sure. She put the food on the table as well as the silverware and sat in front of the boys.

  "Bon appetit."

  Levi began eating. The breakfast was silent, the only sounds that could be heard were the cutlery on the plates and Eren's cute and soft snorings (though Levi would gladly spend an entire night with Mama instead of admitting he found someone's snores _cute_ ). Carla then put her fork in her bowl of rice.

  "You know, Levi, Eren likes you a lot."

  Levi nodded his head. Only a fool wouldn't have noticed.

  "He's extremely mistrustful (and violent, thought Levi) because of all the things we went through and he's always had the impression that he had to protect us both against the whole world. He was only four when we had to leave his father but... I think Eren took his words too seriously. When Grisha told him to take care of me, I think he imagined his son wouldn't take the protective role before at least another five years... I'm ashamed to think that I've let things degenerate to this point..."

  Levi kept on eating. While he knew it was a pretty serious monologue, he knew Carla would eventually ask him to participate in the conversation. Since he wasn't expected to do so yet, he took the occasion to eat. It would have been dumb not to eat his food while it was still warm.

  She sighed as though the weight of the world rested on her shoulders. At the same time, Eren went completely lax in Levi's lap. He was asleep for real, now. Even a bomb couldn't have woken the kid up when he was this asleep. Carla spoke again.

  "Well, I've done what could, didn't I? Since you've arrived in our lives, Eren seems to have become a kid. He's not as serious all the time, he's happier. It almost seems as though he think's you'll always be there to protect him, _us_ , but... we both know it won't happen, don't we?"

  Levi couldn't help but agree. He had so much to do with school, since the exams were pretty soon, and dormitories were about to open. Levi would soon move there. There was no way he could find time to visit the kid and his mum. Carla knew it very well.

  "You're very honest, Levi. You didn't even try to reassure me or to tell me you'd find a way to come visit.

-Why would I lie? You're not dumb, Carla. Of course, you'd know if I tried to lie.

-Haha, yeah. I hope Eren's new big brother will be like you. Well, maybe not exactly like you, maybe a bit more expressive, with a face that isn't constantly stuck on Imma-kill-you."

  Levi raised a brow, both at Carla's comment about his face and in curiosity.

  "New big-brother?

-I... I will get married soon."

  Levi raised his second brow. He quite honestly never had shown as much emotion on his face than at that moment.

  "With a client?

-Yes...

-Didn't you promise Eren you'd give him a decent life? Do you really think that having the kind of guy that hangs out in hostess club as a husband is a good idea?

-No." Her face hardened for a second before she relaxed again." That's why I won't work there anymore. I've finally found a job as a nurse, and the man I will marry has been very clear. He's not exactly a good guy, but he'll change too. We will move away from Shiganshina. He's strong, and I'm stable. If we can find a way to work together, he'll become a good father for Eren.

-What about the woman that gave birth to his son? Why aren't they together?

-She's dead.

-Ah."

  Carla smiled. A sad, sad smile.

  "I'm not trying to find excuses. I'm just trying to do the best of what I have.

-I understand.

-Eren will go to a good school, and he'll meet other people too...

-Where are you gonna live?

-In Trost district."

  Trost was a nice place. Well, compared to Shiganshina, anywhere was pretty damn paradisiac. Shiganshina was the poorest district, the dirtiest, the most dangerous one. The one where gangs ruled over everything and everyone.

  Paradiz was separated in three large regions. Maria, Rose and Sina. The capital, Heaven, was almost the size of the territory of Sina. Its districts were separated in concentric circles. The closest you were to the centre, the better. The furthest you got, the closer you got to Hell. Or, in other words, Shiganshina. Trost was the gate that led to it. Eren would be happy there. Levi knew it for a fact since his school was built there. The dormitories were there too...

  Levi thought that, maybe, if he was lucky, he'd get to see Eren from times to times in the streets, when he'd be walking with his new brother.

  Levi wouldn't talk to them. He wouldn't even let Eren see him. He'd just make sure Eren was fine. He wouldn't become a part of Eren's life again. Levi knew that, from this moment on, he shouldn't approach the kid again. If there was one thing that could be said about his family, it was that the Ackermans were as good as a bad luck charm for the people around them. He wouldn't give this bad luck to the small family, especially since they finally had the chance to have something better. He held to much respect for them to curse them with this.

 Without even noticing it, Levi played gently with Eren's hair. He'd never done that before. He combed his hair, lightly scratched his scalp. The kid relaxed even more on his lap. His throat suddenly felt tight and he tried to swallow the lump in it. 

  "Good. I'm sure Eren will like it there. You'll like it a lot. It's way better than here. Did you ever take a walk in Trost? There are real parks and playgrounds where kids can actually play without risking to walk on a syringe. And the police really tries to do something good. You'll be safer, and the food is of better quality. Eren might make good friends. He won't be as afraid, he might even finally stop fighting...

-Levi."

  The teen had never talked more in his life before. He interrupted his ranting. As much as he thought it would happen, he didn't feel ashamed of it. He was just... was it sadness? One way or another, he didn't feel right. His hand in Eren's hair was covered by Carla's.

  "I can come back to the bar and give you our new address.

-No."

  Levi almost choked.

  "No. Don't ever come back to Shiganshina. I don't want anything to happen to you just because you decided to come say hi or some stupid shit like that. It's okay.

-I have a cell phone if you...

-No. You didn't understand. If you've done any research about my school, then you must know I'm not a good person. Far from it. Hell, I've killed before, Carla. Do you really want to give your son a good life? Then just burn everything that might keep you attached to this place. Just... just forget about everything in Shiganshina. Including me.

-What will I tell him..?

-Just tell him to stop thinking about me. Tell him I abandoned him, or that I disappeared. Whatever.

-No. I won't turn you into in a bad guy."

  He didn't say anything else. There was this fire in her eyes, the one that appeared when a Jaeger's mind became as set as concrete. Eren giggled in his sleep. Levi suddenly felt the small body against him as if he hadn't been there before. The warm body nuzzled against him. The happiness that filled him whenever the boy smiled at him. The bubbly feelings that surrounded the boy.

  Now, not only did his throat not work right, but his overwhelming emotions also made him slightly nauseous. Fuck the heartbreaking goodbyes, those weren't like Levi. He got up, the boy in his arms. He could have done like usual and let his mother take him to his bed, but he wanted to mark this day in his own way.

  He took Eren to his room and put him under the covers of his bed. Levi sat next to the kid and looked at him. His heart ached in his chest, and he could barely breathe but seeing the kid like that, warm and safe, tucked in his bed... it helped him. It soothed him in a way he couldn't comprehend. Levi just stayed next to the kid. Ten, twenty minutes? Carla didn't come in. They hadn't talked after she'd told him she would not taint Eren's memories of him. She knew Levi was bad with feelings, especially his own, so she gave him time.

  It was hard, and it hurt, and it felt shitty. Emotions were just bullshit. Fucking bull shit. Leaving the kid was harder than he'd ever thought possible.

  He wondered what a normal person would do. Someone who knew how to deal with feelings. He couldn't even imagine, and so he did as he thought was best. 

  "Grow well, future psychopath. Maybe that a better environment won't let you turn bad. Don't escape away from your mother. Don't fight anymore. Or, you know, at least fight people your age... without your goddamned iron bar..."

 He couldn't find the words to express himself anymore. He had said all he felt necessary to say, and so he left. Carla escorted him to her door. He looked one last time at the small, sad apartment and said his goodbyes to Carla.

 He left.

And he didn't turn back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goddamn Mama, you would like Grell Sutcliff SOOOO much XD


	4. Let's try to become good people (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha, did I say Friday?  
> Aha, ha ha. Yeah.  
> I'M SORRY!!!!!!

At some moment in his fight, his opponent lost all identity he might have had. He just became a next target, his objective.

He gave some acknowledgement to his opponent. This one had lasted longer than the other ones but it soon would only be a long forgotten memory. Levi lowered his centre of gravity and, faster than anyone could imagine, he dodged the hit that was going for his shirt before he invaded his opponent's personal space. His enemy barely had time to register what was happening before he received a hit on his jaw that threw him on his back. His teeth almost broke from the impact and he lost a small piece of enamel. His head was the first part of his body to hit the floor.

Levi had just beaten his sixth fighting partner of the day.

Silence filled the dojo. Their martial art teacher was the first one to regain his sense. He hurried to Oluo and checked his pulse.

"Still alive, guys. He's alive."

A relieved sigh escape everyone in the room. Levi raised a brow.

"Of course he's alive! Killing him wasn't part of the exercise, was it?"

The teacher looked shocked for a few seconds before replying.

"No, of course not!"

Hange laughed and asked her friend if he would've killed their friend if it had been part of the exercise. Levi didn't answer. He huffed and straightened his shirt.

"Ugh, leave me alone. He's fine. Just... a little unconscious."

Petra looked at him with slight worry in her eyes. 

"-But, captain! Oluo isn't exactly blessed by nature so please don't break his front teeth! That'd be disastrous for his future.

-Oh my god, Petra, if he'd heard you! He'd be more affected by your words than if Levi had broken a few teeth."

Gunther talked after Hange shouted her sentence.

"One way or another, we've got a hell of a good health insurance in this school. Oluo wouldn't have to pay anything to repair them.

-Aish, you really think that's what we're talking about right now? Health insurance? Goddamnit, Gunther.

-Hey, as if you can talk, Eld..."

The other students were far from feeling as nonchalant as the group of friends. 

 

There were two categories of students in the school. The normal students, and the criminal kids, or CK.

The government had listened to Erwin Smith and let him convert young criminals to become policemen but there were a lot of very specific rules that had been established. It was too big of a gamble to let the CK do anything they wanted for the future of the Survey Corps Academy.

 

* * *

 

Paradiz was one of the strongest countries in the world. It has been fighting against Maure for centuries. Paradiz was extremely advanced when it came to technologies and it had all the resources it needed. It faced a major problem despite all that: it's criminal rate. It's worst enemy was itself.

As time got by, the gap between rich and poor got wider and wider until it reached a point of no-return. The many districts of Heaven were the perfect example of how the majority of Paradiz really lived. Paradiz had the highest criminal rate in the world. Unless you had the incredible chance of living in the protective dome of Sina district (the place where all the rich guys with too much money to know what to do with lived), life wasn't good. It was practically governed by gangs and all kinds of criminals. The real government had non-existent power outside of Sina's walls and the army was too preoccupied protecting the frontiers to be able to do anything.

In other words, Survey Corps Academy was Paradiz's last hope of one day seeing it's crimes lower in number. The Academy's goal was forming elite soldiers that would have a higher rank than policemen. They'd be trained to be able to intervene in whatever crisis the country was currently facing. Stronger, more intelligent and more loyal than the regular policemen.

Erwin's Smith project would give back to Paradiz it's former glory.

When he had presented his project to the ministers, they had all agreed on the format but not on its basis. Why would Erwin try to use the scum of this corrupted country when he had the opportunity to train the children of the elite? Handpicked by the Academy, they'd represent the fundamental values and glory of Paradiz, wouldn't they? Erwin answered that unless he was given the go ahead to train some Criminal Kids in a test-class. The kids would be chosen by Erwin himself as well as a government council amongst the many criminals living outside the magnetic wall of Sina.

Levi, Hange, Oluo, Gunther, Eld, Petra and Moblit were the kids chosen by Erwin to start his project. Or as Erwin himself said "Why not give these kids the chance to redeem themselves? Why not give the poorest people the opportunity to regain their pride and allow them the option of having a future other than the prison or death in a gang war?"

Because of that, the classes at the Academy were composed of two groups: the CK and the normal people, or the Elite. 

Up to that day, the two groups had never mixed even a little. It was practically impossible for them to do so. The Elite were constantly pressured to perform and to never, ever fail but the CK were better than them anyways in everything they did. Sciences were Hange's and Moblit's forte. The first and second places always belonged to one of them in Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Technologic Sciences and even Maths. As for Languages, History, Geography and Political Science, Petra, Gunther, Eld and Oluo were without any doubts the very best there was. As for Levi, he surpassed everyone when it came to all physical classes, be it Physical Education, Martial Arts or anything related to weapons. He was the most terrifying student the teachers ever had to deal with before but it was actually a good thing, considering what the school tried to do.

 

 

Strength and speed were his forte but he definitely was agile as hell too. He mastered all Martial Arts before the other students could even get further than the white belt and he was so precise when it came to guns that anyone could've thought he was born with one in his hand (even though Levi kept on saying he preferred to fight with his fist or with a blade in his hand). He was practically a creature from hell, impossible to defeat. If someone ever felt courageous enough to fight him, it always ended in the same way: the idiot would wake up in the infirmary with a few bandages and quite a few stitches.

However, everyone noticed that Levi was even worse than he used to be since a few days, or was it weeks? And now, it wasn't the infirmary anymore, but the hospital. And his sparring partner didn't always wake up the same day they were knocked out.

 One could think that Levi didn't respect the rules and protocols but he did. He never stepped out of boundary which meant that no one could ever accuse him of purposely hurting his comrade or being overly violent. Although just that day Levi had knocked out five Elites. When none other had proposed to be his sparring partner, Oluo Bozado, a CK (son of a scam and a scam himself, his father and him had made thousands of dollars by redirecting the richest people's taxes in their numerous bank accounts) asked to be his partner. No one thought that Levi, the chief of their small group, would be as harsh with him as he'd been with the Elites. How mistaken they'd been.

Their teacher, Nile Dork, decided to give the rest of the class as free time to Levi. He didn't know what to do with him anyway. When Hange decided that she wanted to stop too, he didn't say anything and he let her go with Levi.

No one except Erwin and Darius Zackly (the general of the army. He visited the Academy on a regular basis) had any authority over the lunatic teenager. No one else even tried to make her do something she didn't want to do. Hange's case was quite particular. To the contrary of the other CK, she was born and grew up in the magnetic field. She was the only child of the CEO of the richest high-technology enterprise of the country. Specialised in nanotechnology and molecular biology, Zoe Industries were the most advanced scientists in their domain. Worldwide.

 Despite the wealth her family possessed, Hange Zoe had the longest police record ever seen for someone born in Sina district. Animal cruelty, torture and experiments on other kids and even adults (mostly maids), arson and a few other gentle things like that. She's been diagnosed sociopath at the age of ten. Her father kept her secluded in one of his countryside houses for five years until Erwin came to recruit her for his project (rumours say that during those five years, her family gave her the go ahead to do as many experiments as she wanted to do, which might explain the incredible progress Zoe Industries had made in the past few years). By her birth, she was an Elite student, but if you forgot that part, she was definitely a CK.

Levi observed the other without paying any attention to Hange's presence next to him even though she was practically cuddling him at that point. When she understood he wasn't about to stop ignoring her, she pouted. Her face then brightened up and she began singing.

"Sulking sulking little star, he don't fuck his hot hostess. Don't worry little Levi, you'll find another one soon. Sulking sulking little star, he's just in withdrawal phase."

In a state close to shock, Levi turned a concerned gaze towards Hange.

"They definitely made a mistake with your diagnostic. You ain't no sociopath, it's just your brain that's fucked up. Sociopaths don't deserve to be associated with you...

-Oh, dear Levi! You're the only one that understands me! I never understood why that idiotic psychologist thought I was a sociopath! I mean, I'm pretty sure I've got as much empathy as about anyone else... if I'd been him, I would've said I suffered from psychopathy. Don't you think he seriously lacked some balls? What was he afraid of? Did he think my dad would've destroyed his life if he'd said I'm a psychopath?

-Shut the fuck up.

-Nopy nopa nope! Not until you tell me what's wrong with you.

-Huh?

-Oh, nah, you won't play that trick on me. I know that beating up Elites is a second nature for you but sending Oluo to the hospital? I thought you took better care of you domestic pets than me.

-Oluo won't go to the hospital for that. I just knocked him out a little.

-Yeaaaah, sure. Sulking sulking little star, he don't fuck his hot...

-Stop it!

-So, am I right? You're a wreckage 'cause your hostess got away from that shitty place?"

Levi hadn't heard from the Jaegers for a month and a half now. The last night he'd escorted Carla had been the last night she went to the club. Levi couldn't help but imagine the two of them, somewhere in Trost, living a happy life in a nice little house. Even though he'd promised himself he wouldn't do that, he kept on looking for them every time he was walking in the streets. Every corner, every back alley. He'd even, for some reason, started to hang out close to elementary schools in the hope of seeing Eren (he really needed to stop that, though. His police record was even more impressive than Hange's. He didn't need to add 'suspicion of paedophilia' to it). Levi was more and more frustrated. More and more angry.

He wondered if he'd taken the right decision. Now that he lived in the dormitories and that he never went to the bar anymore, maybe he wasn't such a danger to the small family? He didn't even go to Shiganshina at all these days... but no. He still lived with the weight of his past. Still had Ackerman as his last name... but... couldn't he just check on them? Make sure Eren was happy and liked his step-dad and brother? Make sure he was well integrated at his new school and that'd he'd made new friends? Levi did kinda save his life so wasn't it his responsibility to make sure the kid was fine?

Hange pinched his arm.

"Fuck off, four-eyes.

-Weeeell, I'll take this long silence as an affirmative answer. I can't believe you're sulking because a prostitute dumped you before vanishing... I thought it happened pretty often in Shinganshina. Were you really that surprised when she left you..?

-Next time you call her a prostitute, I'll rip all your hair off, I'll feed you your fucking glasses and your head will disappear in Moblit's ass...

-Hey, Moblit's got nothing to do with it! But my sweet little Levi, if you really want to find her that much, I can help you.

-Not too long ago I was wondering how the hell you'd found out about Carla and I. Now that I really think about it, I'd rather not know. I really, really do not wish to know what you do with your life. The less I know, the better for my mental health.

-When you speak like that, it makes me think that I'm some kind of powerful, mysterious super-hero...

-Nah, I just wanted to make you feel like the crazy psychopath that everyone's afraid off. Seriously, Hange, you should be locked up for everyone's security.

-Tch, you don't think what you're saying, do you? You love me, I know it.

-I only put up with you because Caterpillar forced me to do it.

-Oh hell, if Erwin knew the nicknames you call him behind his back.

-He knows. I call him that in his face.

-THAT'S my Levi! So ballsy even his balls are afraid of him!

-Hange... stop.

-If you really want me to shut up then answer me. Are we going to look for your Carla?"

For some reason, Levi really did want to say yes but he thought better of it.

"No way. She's probably already married anyways and even though you don't believe it, we don't have that kind of relationship. I won't barge in her life again for no real reason.

-But we can't let her go! She's the one, Levi, don't you realise? She made you somewhat talkative and THAT'S magical!

-... why are you so obsessed with me? Leave me alone.

-No, why would I do that? You're one of the only human beings whose brain is interesting even if I haven't dissected it yet!"

Levi took a few seconds to process what Hange had just said.

"Fucking hell, Hange. Please promise to never, ever say that in front of anyone else, okay? You'll be locked up for sure...

-Ohh, don't you see? You love me! You even try to save me from prison!"

Levi grunted. He knew Hange wasn't about to leave him alone and since he wanted her to shut up, he decided to tell her the whole story. How he meet Eren. The promise he made to Carla. The decision she'd made to make her life better. When he finished his story, Hange squealed.

"Aw, so you like a little boy! What? Don't look at me like that, you look like you're about to throw up. I'm so happy for you. I mean, who am I to judge you? Love doesn't have an age, does it? Ouch!"

Levi had just hit her with enough force to knock her out... even though she was just pouting from the pain. Contrary to what most people thought, Hange wasn't some weak little thing with one hell of a fucked up brain. She was stronger than she looked. Levi wouldn't have hit her with that much force if it hadn't been the case.

"Stop being such a nut case and be a little serious.

-MEANIE! I'm against violence, you know.

-Sure, tell that to your guinea pigs...

-I wasn't violent. I liked 'em all. A lot. When I had to make them suffer, I cried with them.

-Why did your parents allow you to live for this long?

-Because my brain is worth millions of dollars.

-That's just sad.

-Yep! But you know, Levi, liking someone -IN A PLATONIC MANNER, OKAY? PLATONIC!!! - it's not a crime, even if you've made mistakes in the past. We are here to amend for those mistakes, no? And what's more, we're trying to help our country. We're heroes. True heroes aren't like the Elites. A nice proper life coupled with wanting to save people? Nah. Real heroes are like us. They fight against their flaws. They try to overcome their weaknesses and they do what they can to make the world a better place. And they make mistakes too...

-Hange, shut up. You're here because Erwin promised you you'll have your own laboratory when you graduate.

-... Well. Enough about me. What are you gonna do to find Eren? How are you gonna do it?

-I won't.

-... HEH??? WHY????

-'Cause I cannot do that. It won't bring him any good. I just wanna know if he's fine, that's all."

Hange looked touched. Levi stared at her intensely. He knew she was about to sprout some kind of stupidity at he desperately wanted her to stop her before she did. He knew it was destined to fail, though. Even a bullet through her brain wouldn't be able to stop her from saying the nonsense she wanted to say.

"oh, Levi! What you've just said was soooooo Batman! Like,  _I'm the big brother Eren deserves but not the one he needs right now. I am not a hero. I'm am but a silent guardian. I protect the people in the shadows. I am the Black Knight._ "

Moblit heard her and, as the complete geek he was... "Batman! Oh hell yeah, that's a classic if I know one..."

The class was now over and Levi wanted nothing more than avoiding (by any means necessary) being alone with Hange ever again.

 

* * *

 

For some reason, talking about Eren to someone had calmed Levi. He realised that all his nervosity was actually quite idiotic since he didn't want to be ever involved with Eren again. He wouldn't look for him anyways.

 

Levi was doing his History homework. If there was one thing he hated, it was History BUT he liked anything related to the wars. Because he wanted to be able to enjoy at least a part of his history class, he'd decided to study everything he hated to get it over with as quickly as possible so he'd be able to spend more time on what he actually liked. He was examining and analysing a map when Kenny knocked on his door. The dormitories were closed for the weekend and he'd been forced to go back to Shiganshina. Kenny had also sent him a message to tell him he had something very important to announce. since his uncle was about as talkative as Levi, in other words, a talkative as a zombie (even then the zombie might have talked more than the two males), the nephew dreaded the talk that was to come.

When he heard the knock, Levi sighed and started to put his things away. When that was done, he got up and opened the door. Kenny looked even less ready than Levi to have this conversation. Levi groaned.

"Why the fuck do you pretend like you're a polite guy, huh? Come on in and spit it out, Kenny."

The older man sighed.

"I want to you to come with me to a meeting.

-... What kind of meeting?

-Well, more like a date.

-WHAT?

-You deaf or something, brat? I want you to come to a date with me. Remember when I asked Erwin to meet up with me to talk about some things? It was a few months ago...

-Yeah. What about it?

-We've made a deal. That asshole is surprisingly tough for a guy born in Sina and I'll regret my choice at the very step I'll take in that fucking school but...

-Nah huh. School? Care to explain?"

Kenny waved his hand as though it was nothing.

"I'll be a teacher in your fucktard's school. I'll teach blade fighting."

Levi's jaw practically separated from his body but Kenny wasn't done yet.

"Oh and I quit. The bar, I mean. I ain't too sure what I'll do with it but it's closing.

-Time out! What's the link between Erwin, your date and the bar?

-Get dressed, dwarf. We eat at 7 and it's 6:30 already. I'm NEVER late, so hurry the fuck up."

Kenny left and Levi swore like he'd never done before. What the hell was wrong with the Ackermans that made them unable to communicate like decent human beings? He understood NOTHING! Why did Kenny decide to become a teacher? Why was he closing the bar? Did he have problems Levi wasn't aware of?

* * *

 

 The way to the restaurant was spent in silence. Kenny did say anything at all and since Levi didn't know how to voice the thousands of questions plaguing his damn mind, he kept his mouth shut.

Kenny parked his car in front of a cheap but decent restaurant in Trost district. To be honest, Levi was impressed that his uncle knew about this place. He usually spent all his spare time and cash in shabby bars and whorehouses so the teenager thought he wouldn't even know there were other kinds of buildings than those. The two males stepped out of the car. It was a cold December and Levi hid his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"What are we doing here? Are you fucking with me?

-If only I knew myself, kid. It was her idea, not mine. I don't even know how the fuck I should tell you  _that_ , so to tell you what we're doing here... After all the shit we've done -yeah, I know, it was my fault, sorry about that and get the fuck over it already- anyway. I feel really weird just standing in front of such a normal place... The game has started already, though. I guess I can't back down now."

Levi was just about to slap his uncle to make him shut up. Like, honestly, what was with him and his cryptic speech? Huh? He didn't have the occasion to do that, though. Kenny was already walking toward the restaurant. Levi sighed and followed him. They entered the place and Kenny started to look at the people in there.

"We're right on time but I'm sure they're here already... ah. There they are."

Without wasting even a second, Kenny walked in the direction of a table. Levi was about to loose it. He was probably gonna suffer a bit (after all his uncle might have started to get old but he was still more than capable to put up one hell of a fight) but the teen was sure that with just the right amount of torture he'd finally get a decent answer out of Kenny. Since he couldn't find the words to ask what he wanted to know, his fists would do the job, right? Despite his desire to do so, he never did that. Before they even got where his uncle wanted to go, Levi stopped dead on his track and his heart stopped beating.

There, right in front of him, were Carla and Eren.

 Eren still hadn't seen him. He was too busy eating his hamburger to notice anything around him. He looked fine. He was wearing brand new jeans and shoes. His khaki t-shirt made his skin look even more healthy than it was and his cheeks had filled up a bit. His hair was just as messy as it used to be but it was shiny and clean and it looked very well taken care of. As usual, he looked mad about something.

As for Carla, she immediately saw him. A myriad of emotions passed through her eyes in a second. When his heart decided to start working again, Levi took the decision to push Kenny away before the kid noticed them. However, despite all of Levi's wishes and (not really) prayers, his uncle didn't move an inch. He was stuck there, not moving. just like some kind of statue. He then opened his mouth.

"Hi, Carla. So, huh, this is...

-Levi."

She nodded her head as though she had just discovered the truth about a question that only she knew to be important. Levi didn't budge, completely lost. Why. Did. Kenny. Present. Him. To. Carla. Of. All. People. WHY?

When he heard his name, Eren's head raised up. His mouth opened slightly, he dropped his hamburger and his beautiful green eyes started to shine as though they were stars.

"LEVI!!"

Even Kenny was startled at the kid's shout. Eren literally jumped from his place into Levi's arms. Even more under the shock than he'd been previously, all the teenager could do was open his arms for the child. He stood there, his brain lagging ina spectacular way. Kenny, for his part, was staring at the two boys in a state of pure surprise. He finally got out of it.

"Okay. What's going on? I mean, does anyone even know what's going on?

-Better take a seat, it might take some time."

Carla said that and pointed to the bench opposite of her and Eren. Before they older males even had to time to agree, Eren had moved his food and was sitting on the bench, leaving only one place available next to him.

"I wanna sit with Levi!"

* * *

 

Levi was still in shock even after everything had been explained. His brain refused to believe it.

Everything started when Kenny ran out of whisky. He always forgot to place his orders for alcohol in advance and he'd always found a way to make it work nonetheless. Turns out that, to make it work that day, he had no other choice than to ask some of the alcohol at the host club. While he was talking with Mama, he noticed Carla. He immediately felt something for the woman but it took him two weeks before going back to the club as a customer. He asked for Carlita. It took some time but they talked a lot about many things. Kenny wasn't one to like talking, especially not in host club (for his defence, most host clubs were brothels disguised just enough so that the police wouldn't pry ) but with Carla? It was different. He wanted her, yeah, but he was willing to wait an eternity if that was what it took. 

She was beautiful and frank and also really honest. People liked her easily as she never acted as if her emotions weren't real. There was something noble in her that made her act with pride and confidence and she drew people in that way without even realising.

Before he could even really take the time to think about, Kenny wanted more. He wanted Carla and him to have a real relationship. It was the first time in his life that he'd felt like that and he had been oh so confused about them. He didn't know how to deal with these emotions and he'd been terribly awkward when he finally found the courage to confess (well, confess is a big word. More like some incoherent word-vomit). She rejected him. Because she had a son. Because she wanted to give the best to him. Because even if Kenny seemed sincere he clearly wasn't ready to become the kind of man good enough to father a child (he had told her about his past job and some of his mistakes... how he had come to do that he didn't know but he could say that the brunette had some weird power over people). And to top it all, she still hoped that her husband would come and find her.

 Heartbroken, Kenny stopped going to the club for a long while before he realised that he didn't care about the fact that Carla was still thinking about her husband. He wanted her for himself and he would do everything he could to finally have her and so he came back to her. He promised her to become a good man. He asked Erwin for a meeting in the hope that the blond man could help him in this and he got a job at Survey Corps Academy as a teacher. As soon as he told her that, Carla started to think about it more seriously. In the time Kenny had been away she had realised that her husband probably wouldn't come back. She realised he was probably dead and she decided to do what was the best for her son. She needed to find a new way to live.

Kenny helped her to become a real Paradiz citizen. They found the papers she needed together to allow her to quit her job as a hostess so that she could exercise her profession, a nurse. Erwin found a clinic that wouldn't mind hiring her and Kenny and Carla decided to get married to accelerate the process of making her a citizen of their country. There were also quite a few advantages of having a family when you became an employee of the state (Kenny hadn't thought about it at first but he was more than fine with the idea). They got married two months ago. No ceremony, nothing over the top. Mama had been the wedding witness and Kenny adopted Eren. Erwin found them a house in which they could live away from Shiganshina.

 

 Kenny never told his nephew because everything had happened so fast and he'd been too preoccupied by his exams.

 

Eren kept on eating his fries. He looked like a starved child, even though he clearly wasn't. He never stopped moving his feet and his whole body, in fact. Every ten seconds he looked at Levi with joy written in his eyes. Carla chuckled.

"I thought the two of you had the same eyes and I also knew that your names were both Ackerman but to think you were Kenny's nephew...

-Yeah, well, I never thought your husband was my uncle either.

-He did talk a bit about you but now that I think of it, he never said your name. It was always the kid, the brat, the dwarf on a few occasions... how could have had guessed?"

Kenny interrupted them.

"Why didn't you tell me that those fu... freaking, huh, idiots had come back?"

Levi almost died from a brain aneurysm when he heard his uncle trying to watch his tongue in front of the kid. He was so, so fucking whipped it wasn't even funny. Carla put her hand on Kenny's arm.

"I didn't tell you because I knew what would've happened to them (Levi had to stop himself from laughing. Eren and Kenny might have had a few things in common when he thought about it. Only, Eren would've been kinder to the three men). I didn't want to have to live with that and I still wasn't sure about the two of us. I think that if I hadn't known Levi, I might have never trusted you. You bath have the same eyes, so I associated the two of you for some reason... even if it makes sense now..."

Eren didn't care about the oldest people around him were talking about so he spoke to Levi.

"You look hungry. Do you want fries?

-Hey, brat, don't even try feeding me your garbage. If you don't eat everything on your plate, I'm gonna steal your desert."

Eren's eyes doubled in size. He stuffed the offered fries in his mouth and chewed them as fast as he could. Carla chuckled again.

"Now that I think of it, Levi never called Eren by his name either! That's actually pretty funny..."

Levi interrupted her.

"Look, huh, I really don't know what to say. Congrats? Be happy? All of that is just one big piece of shit. Kenny won't ever change! I know, I'm the same! Eren won't be happier with Kenny as a dad, he doesn't know how to be a father!

-That's why you have to come live with us." 

A heavy silence filled the table. Eren asked Levi if he really would live with them.

"Huh-uh, no way."

The kid's eyes filled up with tears and Levi almost felt like apologising to him. however, that would have been a little OC, right?

"I won't live with you. I live at the Survey Corps dormitories, I don't want to...

-Our house is fifteen minutes on foot away from the Academy. I'll be a teacher there, remember? Erwin took care of everything.

-What? How could Caterpillar throw me out without even talking about it to me? I'm gonna kick his fucking ass!

-Levi, language!"

Carla's voice immediately made Levi feel as though he'd just been scolded (which might have been the case). Kenny was still trying to convince Levi.

"No one knows me better than you do, midget. No one else knows what I'm capable of and the way I do things. If I do something wrong, if I'm as useful as a stick, only you can actually make me do something about it. Carla can't always watch over everythingI do but you can. If you come live with us you can make sure I won't screw up."

Levi really, really tried to find arguments against his uncle's but he didn't find any. He wanted to find the right words to express how impossible it was for Kenny to become a good dad and for himself to become a big brother. They were gonna hit a wall and hello the catastrophe.

It could never work, he was sure of it.

His conviction was shattered by both Carla's and Kenny's gaze. Thye were both telling him that they refused to give up. Eren also stared at him. The kid had been listening to the conversation and he didn't want to loose Levi again. The intensity in his eyes was so fucking strong and that's what broke Levi. Didn't he save the kid? Hadn't he said that he wanted to assume that responsibility and make sure that Eren was fine? Would Levi turn his back to the kid like people had turned their backs to him?

He made the mistake of looking at Eren's eyes. The green of is eyes reminded him of the summer leaves when the lights passed through them. Small spots of gold passing through a vibrant emerald green. But it wasn't the good description since there was also this beautiful shade of blue mixing with the green of his eyes. His irises were beautiful but oh so disturbing...

 "Please live with us, big bro Levi... please..."

He already knew he would regret this decision, but he would certainly kick Kenny's ass if he ever did something wrong. He would make sure that both his uncle and himself would become good people.

 


	5. All that family's crap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M AN UNRELIABLE PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!! I'M JUST A PIECE OF GARBAGE T.T I'M SO DAMN SORRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
>  
> 
> Also, as someone (Buggy_Love) made me notice, I wrote Nile Dok as Nile Dork, which technically isn't a mistake 'cause in the official French translation his name really is Nile Dork. The funniest thing is that I actually wanted to write Dok, autocorrect changed it to Dork, I didn't notice, I updated the last chapter, decided to not correct the mistake and then I realised it wasn't a mistake. Like what the hell? I laughed my ass off when I read Nile Dork in the manga, I just felt like my life was the most extraordinary mess ever... yeah, I'm lame like that.

It took them about a week to move inside their new house.

As he was unpacking one of the few boxes that were his, Levi remembered the conversation he'd had with Erwin a few days earlier. _The blond man was sitting calmly in a comfortable recliner in his office when Levi had barged in without even knocking. He barely moved at all when the teenager invaded his office._

_"Hey, Eyebrows! Who said it was okay to throw me out of the dormitories without my permission?_

_-Ah, Levi. I see Kenny finally told you about his projects..."_

_Erwin kept on taking care of his paperwork as though nothing was disturbing him. Levi approached him and hit the documents in front of his principal/future boss._

_"Look at me when I talk to you! Kenny is a piece of_ _garbage_ (ah, just like me okay I'll shut up I'm sorry) _and I don't care about what he might_ _ask you to do in the future but just ignore him! Especially if he's trying to ruin the lives of a poor woman and her psychopathic son! I'm pretty sure I've been clear about that: my family's drama concern me and me only!"_

_Erwin finally dropped his papers and looked at Levi. The teenager felt attacked by the man's icy blue stare._

_"Think about it this way, hum? Survey Corps Academy would never have had existed if I hadn't been ready to offer my help to anyone who might have asked for it. I strongly believe that even lost causes might be salvageable. After all, it's impossible to do something only if you give up..._

_-Oh, don't even try to pull that one on me dude. You only helped him 'cause it gave you a leverage point to force him to work in your psycho's school."_

_Erwin slowly shook his head. All his strands of hair stayed exactly where Erwin had combed them. It was kind of creepy in a way Levi couldn't comprehend._

_"Levi, I am quite sad that you have such a bad image of me. I only want you to be happy. And your uncle as well. If everyone gets to have what they want at the end of the day, isn't it the good thing to do?_

_-... because being forced to lived with that cunt of an uncle and his new little family is totally gonna make me happy, isn't it?_

_-You will live with **your** little family, Levi. That's the one thing that really counts. You are the pearl of my project (these words had made Levi's skin crawl). You are strong, brilliant but most of all you are terribly terrifying and even if I know it isn't true, there are a lot of people who believe you to be unstable and unpredictable. By marrying that woman, Kenny offered you a life that has always been refused to you. A home, a family, a place where you'll finally belong. I want to see how you will change if all the conditions are there to give you happiness and most of all stability. You could become the best soldier in history if you fuel isn't vengeance anymore. You need to have something worth protecting and not just a target."_

_Levi's eyes became murderous and he groaned._

_"Do I look like a fucking rat in one of you laboratories?_

_-You might look like you are angry but I know you are reasonable enough to know that this is only you trying to hide the problem. You want to protect yourself because the idea of finally having something that is yours is terrifying. When you really think about it, my interests do not really matter, do they? Shouldn't you be happy to not have to share your personal space with one of your comrades? I thought you hated living in the dormitories..."_

_Levi shut his mouth. He couldn't explain what was bothering him about being thrown into a family that he never thought he would ever have one day. It was to intimate for him to tell that to Erwin and, even if he had wanted to tell him, he couldn't have found the words._

Two small hands helped Levi to empty the box the teenager had been working on before his brain had taken him elsewhere.

"Hurry up, Levi! Mum wants to go groceries shopping"

Levi snapped out of his mind.

"Hey, bug, did you even wash your hands before touching my things?"

Eren looked at Levi with a defiant stare.

"I'm not a bug, Levi.

-You're small and annoying so, of course, you're a bug. Don't touch that, you'll dirty my things."

The kid looked like a kicked puppy and he clutched the books in his hand even tighter than before.

"I washed my hands.

-Yeah. Before dinner. And after? Did you?

-...yes. I did.

-You dare lie to me..?"

Levi's voice got deeper and menacing. Eren boiled with excitation. He waited... now. The kid escaped Levi as the teenager chased him down towards the first floor. The brown-haired boy was faster than Levi had anticipated and he couldn't catch the kid before he hid behind his mother. Carla shouted.

"Stop having fun for a second! I can't count on Kenny since he's preparing his first class so I'll need your help for the shopping."

 Levi looked at the child with a mean look in his eyes.

"Carla, tell him to NOT go into my room or I'm gonna kill your piglet."

Kenny stuck his head out of his office and smirked.

"Watch out, brat, you're really starting to sound like a real big brother...

-Yeah, except I will gut him and I'll make a rug out off his damn scalp."

Levi was looking at his uncle with a dark light in his eyes. Kenny just snorted.

"As if. I've seen how you look at him. That kid is your kryptonite. I liked you less than you like Eren and I still stopped being an assassin to raise you.

-Hey, just because you got married doesn't mean you get to re-write the story, old fart. You stopped killing people for a living 'cause you were getting too old for the job... oh, don't look at me like that, you know it's true... Also, your principal clients were all killed by the Titans. When it comes to the way you've raised me, the social workers would've called it child abuse or something.

-Yeah, yeah, whatever. Say what you want, dwarf. I know what I see and what I say. Also, I wasn't raising a kid, I was raising an Ackerman.

-Ah? But Eren ain't a Jeager anymore, though. He's an Ackerman too now. Remember he's not the real deal if you ever feel like 'being a good dad'."

A deformed smirk appeared on Kenny's face.

"See? You're trying to make sure he's gonna be okay..."

Levi had to stop himself or otherwise he'd have broken his uncle's nose with his boot.

"LEEEEEEEVIIIIIIII, mommy wants us to go with her, cooooomeeeee oooooooon!"

Rectification: He wanted to break everything that moved. He really needed to hit something.

* * *

 

 Even after two months, Levi hadn't found it in himself to kill the kid. Even if said kid seemed ready to do anything to convince the teenager to do it.

 "That's, uh, really... cute, captain. What is it, a bunny?"

Levi frowned and stared at Petra. She pointed the small drawing on Levi's sheet. There, at the top corner of his notebook, was some kind of creature from hell under which was written (very badly at that, with a reversed e ) Eren. The kid had had the guts to put his signature under this abomination. Levi groaned. It attracted their Language Arts teacher's attention but he ignored the two monstrous CK and kept on giving his class. Levi grabbed his eraser and tried to get rid of the drawing but it didn't do anything. The brat had used a pen. But for hell's sake, when did the kid slip into his room? Petra chuckled.

"Is Eren the name of your little brother, captain?

-No. He's not my brother. It's the soon-to-be dead kid of Kenny's wife... I swear I'm gonna kill that damn brat!"

Petra gave Levi her Liquid Paper. Levi thanked her and got to work erasing the abomination Eren had drawn on his sheet.

"I'd like to meet him. He must really be something if he's got enough courage to defy you."

Petra's words brought some images to Levi's mind. The teenager saw the kid laughing while he was chasing him down to make him regret stepping foot in his room. He saw him slip inside his room to do his homework even if he was forbidden from entering. Sometimes he came with one of these really simple books that Eren had troubles focusing on and understanding because of his ADHD. Sometimes the child would just talk about the 'adventures of Jeager the explorer' (which were nothing more than him walking in the neighbouring and discovering meaningless shit). Almost against his will, Levi relaxed and smiled a little. 

"Yeah, he is something. He'd probably be able to kick a grim reaper's balls if it tried to bother him. That brat is suicidal."

Petra was in shock. She had never seen Levi without his perpetual I-don't-give-a-fuck face or his Imma-kill-you-and-it's-not-gonna-be-a-fun-thing face before. He was relaxed, almost joyful as he spoke of his little brother with what Petra believed was pride. Her desire to meet Eren suddenly increased drastically from simple curiosity to an urge to see him. Before the end of the day, that urge spread to all of the CK. It was an annoyed and reluctant Levi that brought them home after constant nagging.

As he got closer to the house, a small body launched itself at the teenager. Eren hugged his legs and his face on the side of his left thigh. The kid had appeared out of nowhere like a ghost and had surprised everyone except Levi himself. Eren always did the same thing when his big brother got home after him. He always acted as though he hadn't seen the short grumpy guy in ten years. Levi stopped and waited for the kid to finally let go of his pants. His friends surrounded him in the meantime.

Hange was staring at the child with awe in her eyes.

"Oh my god, look at this tiny human!

-Have you ever seen a kid before? From this close?

-Mmm? I did, Moblit, but then they put that restraining order on my ass when I was a kid myself. I wasn't- and I'm still technically not allowed too but who cares, right?- allowed to approach any place where children younger than fourteen are. Guess I'm a rebel..."

Gunther looked mortified.

"Why the hell am **I** a CK? I only just followed the oldest kids in some slightly illegal gang business... but you, Hange... well, you're fucking scary, you know that, right?

-Aish, Eld, don't you even dare! Your gang did the most violent bank robberies EVER in all off Paradiz. If I were you I'd shut up."

Petra rolled her eyes.

"Guys, stop talking about that, won't you? Are you stupid? Captain's little brother is right here."

Oluo shrugged.

"So what? He's, like, four or somethin'. It ain't as though he understands what we say, right?"

Moblit stared at him with a disgusted look.

"A four years old kid totally does understand the vast majority of what you say. They just don't really process it the way someone older does. Now that I think of it, none of you ever really saw a child from that close before, did you?

Eren let go of Levi to have a better look at the group of foreign people that surrounded him and his brother. His mind decided he didn't like them and he hugged Levi's legs again. He stared at the teenagers with wary eyes. Hange screamed high enough that everyone covered their ears with their hands when they heard it.

"OH MY GOD LOOK AT THESE GORGEOUS EYES!"

Hange kneeled to put her face at Eren's level. Levi couldn't help but feel a little concerned to see her so close to Eren... and to his crotch. She then grabbed the kid's face in her hands. A full body shiver travelled up Eren's small body when the girl touched him.

"You know you've got the planet's most beautiful eyes ever, right? It must be some kind of mutation... This is the most beautiful aqua-green colour of Mare! Oh, I wanna hug you so much right now- don't worry, Levi, I won't, there's no way I'll risk infecting Eren with the disease I'm currently working on. YES, I WASHED MY HANDS!- you're so cute! IS it genetic? Does your mum or dad have eyes like yours? Oh, you are so damn A-DO-RA-BLE!

-Hange, you have three seconds to let him go before I make you swallow your damn glasses."

Since the brunette ignored him and kept on cooing at Eren, Levi grabbed the kid by his shoulders and stuffed him under his arm to save him from Hange. The crazy girl looked desperate.

"Levi! No! Don't do this! We were barely starting to get to know each other! Let me give my affection to this delectable creature!

-He's already one hell of a nutcase without you doing anything weird to him, four-eyes. No way I'm letting you give him PTSD to top it off."

Levi stared at her with the scariest eyes he could muster. Everyone froze in place as he replaced Eren from under his arm to his shoulder. Now free to move his head with more ease than before, Eren looked at Levi's friend with some newfound curiosity. The teenagers were amazed to see that the kid seemed to be unfazed by Hange's attack. If such a young kid could deal with her shit with as much ease as he did, he was definitely as strong as his adoptive brother.

* * *

The house was very nice. Cosy and welcoming. Potted plants placed close to a window. Light beige nylon couch and recliner. A low wood table where Levi always did his homework, sitting with his back to the couch. A decently sized plasma TV, French doors that lead to the backyard where a basketball net was nailed to a tree (Kenny really tried, okay? Granted, a tree might seem a bit weird but hey, at least the national sport could be played in their backyards, alright? To which Carla laughed her ass off). The kitchen was "American-style" (which really only meant it had a stove and oven as well as a fridge AND enough counter space to be able to work two or three people at the same time). Everything was light and clean and relaxing. It was a stereotype of the perfect family house with the perfect little family living in it. To see Levi in this kind of place really surprised his friends. Even Hange couldn't find the words to express how shocked she really was.

Levi raised a brow and asked them:

"What are you doing? You trying to become statues in the freaking doorway?"

The group of CKs woke up from their comatose stupefaction and took off their shoes. They aligned them perfectly on the edge of the carpet in front of the door, going as far as to place them from smaller to bigger.

Eren tried to hug Levi again but the teenager pushed him away gently as he headed to the sink. However, when the two boys noticed Eren's books abandoned on the couch, Eren didn't hesitate to run away. Levi tried to grab him by the back of his shirt but the kid was too fast for him to actually be able to do it. 

"Come back here right now or I'll make you eat your damn homework."

Gunther was the first one to snap out of it. He stepped in the living room. The others reluctantly followed him, as though they had been charged with mine-sweeping the place. Once they were all settled around the low table, no one moved. Levi, already busy with retrieving food from the fridge for his guests (as he always did when his small group of misfit friends came over) pretented to not notice how awkward they were being. He might have been an asshole but seeing how awkward his friends were being, he decided to not add fuel to it and kept his mouth shut.

 Eren appeared out of nowhere. He cleaned up his school supplies from the floor. It took him a few seconds during which he never once looked away from his brother's friends. Almost like a curious but slightly wary cat that did not know whether to let the weird strangers pet him or hide under the furniture for the night. Once he had packed his things in his school bag, his childish voice broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Are you all constipated? Mummy knows a really good tea for that, Levi can make it for you."

 Hange practically purred.

"Thank you, my little sugar thing, we'll remember that for the next time..."

Moblit facepalmed.

"Guys, don't talk to him like he doesn't understand shit! HE DOES UNDERSTAND!!!!

-Mum won't be happy if you swear in front of her.

-SEE??"

Eren frowned, intrigued by all these weird people. And slightly afraid of the brown haired brunet that looked like she wanted to hug him (or eat him).

"Who are you?"

Hange answered him with a sickeningly sweet voice that they were his brother's friend. Levi came back from the kitchen with two plates in his hands.

"Yeah, don't believe everything they say. They're not my friends. I don't have any. They're just a bunch of parasites.

-Like lice?"

Levi was surprised by how accurate the comparison was.

"Yep, exactly like lice.

-Leeeeeviiiii, you're so meeeeeeaaaaaaaaan."

Eren was already focused on something else entirely: the cookies Levi had put on the table. He extended his hand and tried to grab one but Levi growled at him.

"Oi, piglet, go wash your hands.

-I already did.

-Try to lie to me again and I'll crack your head on the counter and then I'll feed your body to lions. Lions love piglets."

Hange cackled.

"You've got more and more creativity when it comes to your threats. I wonder, should I congratulate Eren? He's clearly the one boosting your creativity.

-Hange, I don't think you should congratulate him. I still remember that one time when the captain forced me to sniff chilli pepper powder..."

Petra almost choked on her saliva.

"It seems the pepper had more side effects than we expected if you forgot that it happened two days ago. Oh, poor Eld...

-I can't believe it makes you laugh! Captain is some crazy psychopath 99% of the time, you know? It's not healthy to like him, even less love him. Which you clearly OUCH!"

Her foot kicked Eld's leg exactly where she bruised it during martial arts training. Despite her kind, smiling and soft facade, she was the only CK who ever went to prison for almost killing a few people. When she was arrested, the Wildcats, a pretty violent and strong gang, crumbled apart but the legend of their leader still lived in Shinganshina. The Pink Fire (called like that for her flamboyant red hair and the leather jacket she always wore) was what she was called.

Eren somehow managed to take one of the cookies and bit into it. 

"Say, why did you brought lice home?"

Before the kid could escape, Levi grabbed him by his shirt and headed to the sink in the kitchen. Meanwhile, everyone looked at the squirming boy and the menacing teenager and they wondered if Levi's threat really was serious and if they should save the kid or not. They noticed they were worried for nothing when Levi got the water running, took the cookie from Eren's hands, put it on the counter and then washed the kid's hands. Everyone's jaw dropped. Once Levi let Eren back on the floor, the child whined.

"I don't like it! I don't like this soap, it smells like lemon and I don't like lemon.

-You don't like citrus? Aww, you're exactly like a cat!"

Levi snorted.

"A cat? Where the hell do you see a cat, four-eyes? That thing right there," he patted Eren's hair " is a piglet."

Eren pulled his tongue, took back his cookie and turned his back to the raven-haired teenager.

"Eat it and go do your homework, otherwise it's Carla that's gonna take care of you!"

Eren shuddered and ran up the stairs.

"Goodbye Levi's lice-friends!

-Don't run up the stairs or you'll end up looking like Oluo! I swear, I'm gonna hang his from his damn ears, I swear I'm gonna do it..."

Aside from Hange, everyone was still in a 'what the fuck is going on am I dead am I in coma is it a dream there's no way this is real' state.

Moblit was the first one to speak.

"Captain... you're... well, aside from the threats, you're such a good big brother!"

Everyone nodded, all at the very same time. Levi's eyebrows raised a good half-millimeter at that. He genuinely was shocked.

"Yeah, and I never thought I'd ever see that but I almost saw him smile!

-Yeah, when the kid was running on the stairs?" Eld nodded "I saw it too!

-Totally. Like damn, he looked happy."

Levi rolled his eyes.

"You're all under some kind of collective hallucination. None of you should have eaten the white mushroom sauce at the cafeteria."

Hange looked as though she was experimenting something. In other words: she looked terrifying.

"Two months with that small angel could change the most dangerous demon into a harmless puppy! And have you seen his EYES?"

Levi almost died from a heart attack.

"Eren? An angel? That kid is a calamity!"

Oluo replied to what Hange had just said and completely ignored Levi.

"Also, when you live in such a nice place, you can't always stay mad. If paradise existed, it definitely would look like this.

-Yes, absolutely! This house, it's just perfect.

-Wait, so I'm always mad? What the hell makes you think that?"

Once again, Levi was ignored.

"Hey, I wonder how the captain's new mum look like?"  
Everyone added their comment to Eld's words. Maybe she had the same eyes, maybe Eren had just been lucky and his mum was ugly, etc. Levi cut it short and told them that Carla looked the same as Eren except for her eyes.

"But, say, captain, it's been two months now. Shouldn't you, I dunno, call miss Ackerman aunty or maybe even mum?

-Moblit. I'll tell you EXACTLY what I told Hange not too long ago. If you keep on bothering me, I'll shove your head up her asshole.

-Yo, Levi? What's got my ass do with any of that? Huh? Nothing, that's what! I didn't think you had some kind of anal fixation but please leave MY ass outta it!

-What ass? You've got one?"

To which Oluo decided to answer:

"Well, she's got a bigger one than Petra."

Petra blushed and menaced her friend.

"Yah, if you don't shut the hell up about right now, I'll finish the captain's job by breaking ALL your teeth!"

The group kept on bickering like that for quite a while. It became more and more heated as they became used to the environment they were in until Eren came back downstairs. He proudly showed his completed homework to Levi before being captured by his brother's friends. Without even talking about it, they had all decided that the young boy would become their mascot.

Soon after, Carla got back home and was more than happy to offer the "lice-friends" to stay for supper. Kenny was less than pleased with that decision. Not only he had to teach them all day about to hold a damn knife, now he even had to see them at home? Those fucking -sorry Carla- freaking incapacitated kids would, without any doubts, kill themselves or, at the very least, pierce their own eye with how inept they were. Even so, the night was very joyful and relaxing. It was fun, even Levi could admit it, despite how wrong it felt. Well, wrong. It didn't feel  _wrong_ per see, more like awkward, but it was so easy to just go with the flow. Unlike what his usual self would've done, he didn't kick them out. They left by themselves.

Once the house was empty save for the little misfit family, Levi sat once again in front of the low table to do his homework. He missed the Japanese style apartments that both Carla and Kenny had. He really, really missed them (not that he'd ever admit it, though, he wasn't that desperate and pathetic). He usually worked in his room but the living room had just become more welcoming than before because of the CK visit and he didn't feel like leaving yet.

A freshly showered Eren, dressed in his pyjamas, slowly dragged himself and sat on Levi's lap. He had played kitten with Hange and used Oluo as a horse and now, he was on the verge of passing out from how tired he was. In the two months they had lived together, Eren hadn't done that at all. He never had the occasion too. It only took a few seconds for the kid to fall asleep, nuzzled against Levi's chest. The teenager put his hand in Eren's hair and distractedly petted it as he did his maths homework. Kenny came in the living room with a beer, probably planning on drinking it in front of the TV when he saw the two boys. Kenny stared at Levi. The raven-haired teen ignored the older's man gaze and pretended he didn't notice how meaningful it was. He didn't care about what his uncle said or thought. One way or another, didn't he decide to fully take his responsibility? What was wrong with protecting and treating the kid like a pet? Eren's hair was so soft and fluffy. Also, everyone knows that petting a puppy is relaxing, right?

Once Levi was done with his homework, he picked the kid up in his arms and brought him upstairs. He tucked him in bed and watched him sleep for a while. He looked so peaceful and normal. So childish too, and it seemed like a miracle to Levi. He didn't know much about Carla's and Eren's life before he met them but he knew it hadn't been all rainbows and butterflies. Sombre, sad, tensed... yeah, that would be expected by most but Eren wasn't. He was... yes, he was happy.

Levi remembered the only other time he'd watched Eren sleep and his heart tightened. Back then, he had been convinced he'd never see the kid again.

Erwin was right. Levi didn't want to own something because if it was his then it could be ripped away from him at any moment.

He didn't whether or not he was happy. If it would last or not. If he could get used to the colourful and joyful routine that Carla and Eren brought to his life. Was it all a good thing? Levi couldn't help but think that everything could end abruptly. This small universe could be a mirage, a happy one, but an ephemeral one. 

Levi shook his head. Asking questions that couldn't be answered wasn't his style. He combed his fingers through Eren's hair one last time before getting up. He decided not to bother himself with such question. Living day by day seemed like a good choice. At the moment, he felt good. Taking care of that small bundle of energy and calamity amused him more than he would ever admit even to himself.

Yes, Levi definitely could get used to all this family's crap.

 


	6. When the little Beast meets the little Birdie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still a piece of garbage... but I'm a piece of garbage that's got more time on her hands!!!!! So Here is the sixth chapter! Enjoy :)  
> If there are any mistakes, please point them out.

Back when they still lived in Shaganshina, Eren's mother always forbid him to walk outside alone. Now that they lived in Trost, even though he was never given the permission too, he never felt like he did something wrong when he went outside and wandered around without someone to accompany him. 

Carla hadn't been able to obtain a stable schedule yet and Kenny was still struggling to get used to his new job. He spent most of his free time in the staff room to try and come up with some sort of acceptable classes (what was Erwin thinking when he put him in charge of Weapons History? Kenny had never talked this much in his life ever before even when he'd been trying to seduce Carla...) and Levi, as any other student, spent all his time studying or hanging out with his 'lice-friends' before coming back home. 

Result? Eren spent a LOT of this alone for a kid his age. He got back home from school all alone, ate his snack alone... and when he was alone? He was damn bored.

It was his boredness that gave him the idea of the 'exploration missions of the great Jeager'. The part of the district he lived in held no more secrets to the kid. He sometimes waited for Levi in a nearby playground and when his brother got there, they'd go home together. Levi snacked with him from times to time before he went upstairs and locked himself in his room to do his homework. Eren really liked bothering Levi. Especially when the older boy didn't want to be bothered (which was most of the time) because even if he acted mad and frowned and talked with his scary voice, Levi always ended up playing with him. But not lately. Since his mum told him how important it was for Levi to study, Eren stopped barging in his room looking for attention. Instead, he spent his time wondering what to do. Really, Eren was _bored_ and the kid could barely bare it.

On a day when he decided to go outside, Eren crossed a back alley, hit a few bricks with the stick he had in his hands (he found it in the nearby park. It was a great walking stick, a wonderful fictive machine gun and a passable sword) and stumbled across them. He had been all happy and frisky, and now he wasn't.

A group of kids around his age were surrounding another kid. Said kid seemed clearly shorter than the others but it might have been because he was curled up. The four boys that surrounded the smallest child? Eren knew them. They were a year older and they went to the same school. They played boss and strong. They pushed people around, they bullied girls and acted as though the world belonged to them.

* * *

Eren didn't have friends at school. Eren didn't like his new school.

In his school back in Shiganshina, his teacher was a kind and thoughtful woman. She knew Eren simply couldn't sit on a chair for more than half an hour without running, going outside or jump around like some kind of kangaroo. She adapted herself to his hyperactivity to teach him as best as she could how to read, write and do basics maths. But she had the time to do that. Most parents didn't really care about their kids and their education so she had time to give to the few students that wanted to learn. However, in Trost, the new teacher was way more strict. He required obedience and concentration. He expected Eren to fit in and simply obey. The teacher had to teach so many kids and to him, Eren was a dunce. Nothing else. The others students knew he came from Shiganshina and they didn't want to annoy him. They all avoided him. They didn't mean to isolate him, they were just slightly afraid of the kid that grew up amongst gangs and violence. Eren never tried to prove them wrong. He wouldn't pretend to be all soft and gentle just to make friends. He didn't care about what the others student thought of him. He hated this school and if it hadn't been for the promise he made to him mum to act like a 'good little boy', he would've skipped all of his classes.

* * *

The four bullies were surrounding the small kid. 

"D'you know how we call kids like ye? Trannies!

-Yeah, you a disgustin' tranny!

-Lift your skirt, see if you've got a thingy like us!"

The idea seemed to please the others and soon they were all chanting "lift your skirt" over and over again. The curled up child didn't move at all, didn't even try to say anything and so Todd (the chief, if Eren remembered correctly) grabbed her by the hair. The girl cried out in pain and was forced to kneel on the ground. The others boys grabbed her dress and tried to rip it off of her. 

Eren couldn't just stand there and watch anymore. It had been a crazy long time since the last time he'd felt so much adrenaline in his veins. His heart started to beat faster, energy travelled in his body and he started to slightly shake. His breath shortened and he started to see red. He remembered the way Levi had saved him. The amazing way he had kicked his opponent. He even dreamed about it sometimes and Eren somehow knew he'd be able to reproduce it. His body started to move before he even took the decision to attack the other kids. When his boot hit the brute's jaw, Eren heard a sinister cracking sound that brought a smile to his lips. Perfect! It hadn't been as beautifully executed as Levi's but it was a pretty damn good start. The other three boys stared at the green-eyed boy with terror in their eyes. Eren slowly turned and looked at them.

"So, do you wanna play with me, idiots? Four against one, it doesn't seem really fair..."

Todd stared at his friend on the ground with shock in his eyes. The kid on the ground held his jaw. He cried and blood fell down his nose. The boss then stared at Eren.

"A-Ackerman?"

Eren huffed. He really had a hard time getting used to his new name. Todd still held his victim with as much strength as he could muster. The girl was clearly scared out of her mind. Her soft blue eyes reminded him of the times when he'd nap under the old cherry tree in the school's playground, back in Shiganshina. Blond strands of hair were stuck in Tod's hair and a few hair were lying on the ground. Eren hoped it wouldn't be visible when all of this was over. Eren sniffed with a grossed out face.

"Let her go, moron."

From shocked, Todd's face became aggressive. He brutally let go of the blonde kid's hair. 

"Ackerman, you're _dead_!"

With a move of his head, the three bullies headed towards Eren, determined to make him regret his decision. 

Dead? Todd obviously only said this word because he'd heard it on TV before. Todd didn't know what death was. He'd never felt like he wanted to kill someone before. Of course, he'd never wanted to kill someone. Todd wasn't like him. Todd was weak despite the fact that he was way taller than Eren.

Eren almost smiled. He felt the same kind of energy he had felt _that_ night when he tried to kill the men that had hurt his mother. He _knew_ he shouldn't do it. He knew he shouldn't hurt these other boys, but he instead let himself smile. He let the adrenaline course through his veins. He let himself be filled with excitation and apprehension of the fight to come. The others kids became wary of the stick Eren held in his hands and they became hesitant.

Eren patiently waited for his adversaries to make the first move. 

A minute. Two minutes passed without anyone moving except the boy on the ground. He had crawled all the way to the wall of a nearby house and he was still whining in pain. It wasn't that they didn't want to attack. They did. They wanted to move and show the smaller child that they were stronger than him. They just couldn't. Their bodies didn't obey them like they should've. 

Hypnotised by his terrifying green eyes. 

The gaze of a predator on them.

Cold sweat running down their backs.

Fear.

Fear. 

Fear.

 **Fear**.

One of the brutes slowly walked back and said "I-I'm going home..." and ran away as fast as he could. The other two were way too scared to be able to move, even the slightest bit. Eren licked his dry lips and stared at them with even more intensity than before.

"If you guys are still here, is it because you wanna fight? I guess so..."

Eren didn't give them the time to answer. He attacked them. The first hit got Todd's friend on his face. He fell on his butt and without waiting even one second he crawled back, out of reach of the scary green eyed kid. His cheek was scratched from the wooden stick and he'd probably have one hell of a bruise on his face in a few hours but he was still awake. Adrenaline filled him and finally allowed him to move. He ran. Eren hadn't even looked him as he was too preoccupied with Todd. He hit him over and over again. The child tried to protect himself and screamed that he didn't want to fight but Eren didn't hear him. Todd curled up on the ground, his arms over his head in a futile attempt to protect himself. Even then Eren didn't stop.

A pale, dirty scratched up hand grabbed his arm to stop him.

Eren turned his eyes, filled with malice, towards the person who stopped him. It was the girl. The one that Todd's group had been hurting. Eren frowned, puzzled. She was shaking and sweating but she didn't break eye contact when he looked at her blue eyes. Eren knew, or at least suspected, that he looked pretty frightening judging by the other kid's reaction when they looked at him but she didn't move. She still held his arm. Eren asked her in a voice so calm and normal that it was almost frightening:

"What are you doing?

-St-Stop! You... You're gonna kill him..."

Eren crooked his head to the side, as though he didn't understand a single word the girl had said.

"So what? They were hurting you, no? Now that I think of it, why didn't you try to defend yourself?

-Because I am stronger than them! I wasn't losing..."

Even though her voice sounded broken, she was dead serious. Eren smiled a real smile this time. He bent down and took the stick that he'd let fall on the ground.

"You're really damn weird, you know?"

Todd took the opportunity that was given to him and got away. He crawled at first and then he ran to escape from the back alley. 'Thank god that this stupid tranny stopped him' he thought as he saw the disappointed eyes the brown haired boy threw at him.

"Aw, now he's getting away..."

All that was left of his fight with the bullies were the few blood droplets on the ground.

Oh well. One way or another Eren had been calmed down from the moment the blonde girl had touched his arm. He sighed.

"They'll probably come back, you know? Bad guys always come back."

The girl looked exhausted and out of breath. She walked towards the old book that the bullies had taken from her and got it back. 

"I know. It doesn't matter. I won't walk here again, that's all.

-Yeah, but if you had let me hit them, you wouldn't have had any problems ever again from them."

The vicious eyes she threw at Eren surprised him. She looked... disgusted, almost.

"I don't want help from a brute like you. You can't take care of a violent situation with violence. You're exactly like them, a bad guy...

-WHAT? But I helped you!"

She looked as though she were thinking for a few seconds and bid him goodbye.

"Thank you. Farewell."

She turned away. A confused Eren followed her.

"Wait, what's your name?"

She was wary of him, the green eyed kid could see that.

"Why do you want to know that?"

Eren played with his fingers, twisting them and looking at them like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"I'm sorry.

-Wh... Why do you apologise?"

Eren looked at her through his eyelashes, from below, with contrite eyes.

"Because I made you mad?"

Silence filled the alleyway. The blonde kid stared at her 'saviour'. She shook her head.

"I'm not mad. Thanks for helping me. I think... yeah, you're not like them." 

She didn't say she thought he was worse. The others had done what they'd done out of malice because they wanted to feel powerful. Not the green eyed kid. He was deeply different than them. He did everything he did out of the kindness of his heart, in a way. He didn't see that what he'd done was bad because all he saw was that he'd helped someone. He was convinced he had done the good thing... Yes, he was scary. She was brought out of her thoughts when the other child smiled at her with a warm smile. 

"You're really courageous, you know?

-Heh?

-I don't really understand why you think you were winning by letting yourself be beaten but I could see it!

-See what? 

-That you weren't afraid! At all!"

She chuckled. Even if he had been really awkward doing so, he had been trying to compliment her.

"I was scared. Actually, I was almost dying from how afraid I was! And I didn't want to be covered in bruises again...

-Does it happen often?"

She nodded.

"Each time I'm not careful enough. They see me when I'm on my way from the library.

-Why don't you ask your mum to buy you books?"

Blue eyes lit up with passion.

"Because I love going outside! And the library is my favourite place in the world! It's just like a magical place, filled with thousands of worlds and universes!

-Yew. I don't like reading. It's so boring. I prefer to go to the playground. Do you know how to play basketball? Levi is teaching me how to play. I'll be in the national team when I grow up!"

She looked at him with a slight bit of jealousy in her heart.

"I... I can't play sports.

-Heh? Why?"

She looked at the concrete under her feet with sadness.

"I have an illness since I was born. My heart is sick and I can't do anything that could make me too tired or make me use my heart too much. And even if I wanted too, I couldn't play basketball with anyone. I never went to school.

-Ahh, you're kinda lucky. School is boring..."

Her face fell down.

"Even so, I really want to go..."

 Eren looked at her carefully for a few seconds. Yeah, she really did look small. Her skin was really pale and her bowl haircut made her look like an intellectual. She looked like someone who would like going to school... as well as someone who wanted to do some sports.

"I can teach you if you want. You can come over at home! Levi is scary but he's nice, you'll see!"

Her eyes lit up and she was about to say yes when she remembered something. She once again looked as depressed as someone could be. Completely lost, Eren tried to comfort her as best as he could. He put his hand on her forearm.

"Don't worry, I'll help you convince your parents...

-No, that's not it... you just won't want to play with me when you'll know the truth.

-Nah, of course not! I really want you to be my friend. And it's gonna be nice to be three to play instead of two..."

She shook her head and clenched her small fists. She raised her head, looked at him dead in the eyes and shouted "I'm... I'M A BOY!!!"

Eren froze. He looked at her from her feet to her head, redid it, and screamed.

"HEH?!?!"

* * *

 Armin's dad was a fireman. He died while trying to save a little kid from the flames. The kid didn't survive either. As for his mother, she was too weak, her body too fragile, and giving birth killed her. His grandfather, his father's father, took care of him and adopted him. However, it seemed like his family was plagued with bad luck. Armin was born with a heart too small and feeble to work properly. Since his grandfather was a descendant of the Ancients (they used to live on Anthya, the lost continent. At the time when the Ancients were still around, the Great Flood hadn't happened yet and Mare was still called the Earth) he had many beliefs and thought that many superstitions were true. One of this belief led to Armin being dressed as a girl. Some Ancients used to dress sick boys as girls until they were seven years old because Gods were more benevolent with girls. Since he'd never went to school, Armin never really understood how bad it was seen to be dressed as a girl when you are a boy until very recently.

Still. There actually might have been something true in that old belief. Armin was almost six years old. The doctors thought he wouldn't survive past his first birthday.

* * *

 

 For once, Eren had been attentive. They were in Eren's favourite playground, the one close to his home. Armin told him everything about his small life. Both sitting on the swings, they weren't really moving until the blonde boy finished his story. He was waiting for the insults that the brunette would, most likely, throw at him now that he knew. Eren started to fidget and twist on the swing, turning left for a while. Once the chains were twisted enough for his liking, he sat back and let himself spin, faster and faster and then slower. He repeated the process a few times, trying to evacuate all the energy he'd suppressed while Armin had been talking. He didn't notice how anxious the other boy was. Eren was his usual self. Carefree and happy.

"Your grandpa is, like, one hell (Armin gasped at what he considered a bad word) of a magician! And I was sooooo right, you really are super courageous! You fight your illness with your dresses like a boss and even the doctors don't know how you're so strong! Your skirts are kinda like the armour of a superhero!"

Armin's eyes filled with tears. In a few seconds, Eren had swept away all of his fears. His shame, incomprehension, solitude... Everything. Armin sobbed lightly and Eren awkwardly patted his head.

"Stop crying though, the mums around are gonna think that I'm being mean to a girl..."

Tears still rolling down his cheeks, Armin laughed.

"Hey, come on! At least choose: you're crying or you're laughing?"

At these helpless words, the blonde couldn't not laugh for real. He wiped the tears that still remained on his cheeks and smiled brightly, one of his delicate hands on his heart. He could barely breathe with how much he was laughing. Eren looked at him, deeply worried.

"Is your heart okay? Why are you holding it?"

If he hadn't been so out of breath, Armin would have told him that his heart had felt this well before. Ever.

* * *

 

 The two boy quickly became really close to each other. Completing each other.

Armin pushed Eren to take school somewhat seriously. Not that the blonde ever did or said anything about it. Eren simply wanted to grant, as much as he could, Armin's wish of going to school. The hyperactive kid gave himself a mission. He took notes about everything in class, from maths to history, so that he could give them to his friend. They learned and did Eren's homework together. Armin quickly caught up to Eren and even surpassed him, explaining everything the brunette didn't understand in simpler words and in steps. Both Carla and Armin's grandfather were pleased with this new friendship. Carla because she had been afraid about Eren never making any friends and the grandpa because he finally saw his grandson smiling.

In exchange, Eren showed Armin what made life so appealing and fun: Stupidities. Tonnes and tonnes of stupid things.

Like, for example, throwing mud on the house of that old woman that destroyed their basketball when it got in her backyard. Drawing on Levi's notebook and escaping as fast as possible once it was done before the teenager kicked their ass. Trying to touch the sky one the swings. Building a pillow fortress with bed sheets and basicaly every pillow in the house (except for Levi's pillow. That had been a mistake that wouldn't be repeated) and then playing pirates. Running after the old and fatigued stray cat to trying and bury it (not it's head, though) in the sand. Playfully bicker and fight (Armin always won when it came to words, but when they became 'professional UFCs fighter'? Eren had always won). Steal Carla's makeup and put it on their faces to look like monsters.  

Every day, every hour, every minute had become an epic adventure for the boys. 

They spent so much time together, be it at Armin's or Eren's, that Carla wasn't exactly surprised when people thought that both children were hers. She basically thought of the fragile kid as her kid anyway. As for Armin's grandpa, he asked Eren to call him gramps. Which he did.

The boys had found that special someone that you would always have with you. That special someone that would always be your friend no matter what and that would never let you be alone. That special person that will never leave you with your sadness without doing everything they could to help. The one human in the world that would never, ever betray you. An eternal ally.

A best friend.


	7. Two Beasts in the forest (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! A chapter so soon? (Almost) respecting my deadline? What? Crazy, right? BUT next chapter will take a little more time. It's gonna be hard to translate but I'll do my best to translate it as soon as possible :)  
> Once again, if you notice any mistakes please point them out. Other than that, enjoy!

The atmosphere was weird at the Academy. As it always was when Erwin went there. Even when he didn't leave his office it felt to most as though he was watching them, monitoring and controlling everything that happened. Yeah, that's how Erwin was. Some damn kind of fucking god that could scare about anyone and anything. And it wasn't some weak guy from Sina district who said it. Nah, it was Kenny Ackerman. Kenny hated Erwin. The dude was just like some sort of twisted puppeteer who specialised in human puppets. He never did anything if it didn't serve him in his future plans, never said anything if he couldn't gain something from it and his eyes... Kenny had to suppress a shiver before he entered the office.

There. That stare. Two electric blue eyes. Almost phosphorescent. The kind of eyes that you only ever see on a porcelain doll. Dead and terrifying. Now, Kenny was used to disturbing eyes. Carla's brat had the weirdest eyes ever but he got used to them. Erwin's eyes? Nah, no one couldn't feel grossed out and wary when these eyes stared at you.

Erwin smiled kindly and motioned his hand to the chair in front of his massive desk. Kenny had learned early in life that a smile was the best way to sell shit to an idiotic man and make said idiotic man think that he actually bought ice cream. And Kenny wasn't idiotic. He stayed where he was, standing in front of the door, not even acknowledging Erwin's gesture. Erwin ignored the other's man reticences and, his face stuck in a fake welcoming expression, greeted the teacher.

"As usual, Kenny, you are true to yourself. Right on time!"

Kenny snorted.

"Death is always on time. Not a second too late nor too soon. She's always right on time. Always been and always will be."

Erwin pretended to be interested.

"Another one of you Ackerman sayings?

-Nah. Just the goddamned truth."

Erwin let his hand fall to his side, visibly convinced that his hospitality wouldn't be rewarded. Right after that, Kenny took place on the chair. He crossed his arms on his chest and crooked his head to the side slightly, defiance in his eyes and... and his overall attitude.

"What even do you want, Erwin? Huh? It's not enough that I'm teaching these disabled kids you call prodigy? It's almost sure that I'm not here 'cause one of them cowards came here to complain, right? Levi aside, none of those bugs have enough guts to bitch about my class. And since I leave him be to do whatever the f... hell he wants, there's no damn reason for him to say anything."

Erwin raised one of his majestic brows. Like, how could he even  _lift_ the fucker? 

"Hum. I would have preferred if you didn't treat your nephew differently. It could be seen as favouritism.

-Ha. Favouritism? Levi started to learn how to use firearms when he was five and he used them at six! I'm pretty sure there's nothing else for him to learn, is there?

-..."

Erwin opened his mouth to say something but he closed it. Probably would have been useless. Instead, he asked:

"How is your family doing?"

Kenny bit his tongue and didn't reply that Erwin should take care of his own ass. It might have been hard to notice for most people but Kenny had learned a few things from the goody two shoe teachers. Apparently, neither ass nor fuck was appropriate in a proper conversation. Bitch too was prohibited. What a discovery! Not that he really was able to talk with proper language but he did try. For Carla, mostly, since he didn't give a fuck about the teens in his care nor about his colleagues. Instead of the lovely reply he had wanted to say a second ago, he said:

"Carla is as happy as happy can be. She loves to be exploited in the clinic you've found. Eren also made a little blonde friend who wears dresses and -no,  **he** 's not Eren's girlfriend- that little blonde friend isn't educated. What a safe district! As for Levi, I guess you see him often enough to know that he only cares about Carla's brat? Hell, he even refused to go to the arcade because he'd forgotten to make Eren's lunch the day before. No kidding. In a month or two, he's gonna be some kind of housewife, pink apron and all, with knitting needles in hand and he's gonna make Eren a scarf or some shit like that."

Erwin smile got larger and somehow looked sincere.

"Really? I'm glad to hear that."

Kenny's jaw almost fell to the ground but Levi didn't learn to look stern from a stranger so the black-haired man kept his bored expression.

"I give you a massive destruction weapon on a silver plate and you're happy about the fact that you're turning him into a butter knife?"

Erwin lost his smile and leant against his armchair. His eyes became piercing and he coughed lightly. 'Shit, what the fuck's going on right now?'

"To be completely honest, Kenny, the reason I asked to meet with you is to talk about your family...  _all_ of your family."

Kenny kept, again, his stern expression and stayed silent. Erwin opened the top left drawer of his desk and took a kraft envelope. He put it in front of the ex-assassin. It brought back memories to the man. His jobs were once handed to him this way. An envelope in which a picture and a name were written. A few important details were also written. Usually, how much the person was worth... and how they had to be killed. 

Knowing really well that Erwin was too much of a righteous man to ask him to do that, Kenny took the kraft envelope and opened it. He retrieved all the documents in it. The first paper, a picture, made Kenny's heart stop for a few seconds. His breathing hitched too and when he finally convinced his lungs to let air in them, it was shaky.

"Mana..."

Erwin nodded his head once. serious.

"We've found Levi's mother's twin. She survived, never had cancer and she now has a little family."

Kenny was still staring at the picture. Mana and Gena were his older sisters. Twins. Mana ran away from home before their father had completed her assassin training. Kenny was only five at the time. Gena had always been too weak physically for their father to take an interest in her. At least when it came to teaching her how to kill. Since she couldn't meet her father's expectations, she became a little more than an older sister to Kenny. She became the only person he had any trust in, almost became a mother to him. However, once Mana left, Kenny had to become a real Ackerman and he did what Ackermans did best except for killing: he left her behind. 

He still couldn't forget that everything was Mana's fault. She should have become an assassin. He wasn't supposed too. If Mana had done what had been expected of her, Kenny could've taken care of Gena and she wouldn't have died alone in a shabby and stinky one room apartment. She wouldn't have left behind the most pitiful five years old known to mankind.

Kenny put the documents back on the desk and pushed them away. He didn't look at anything aside from the picture.

"I don't give a fuck. Good for her, now I don't ever wanna hear about her again."

Erwin sighed.

"There's only one problem, though. Your sister is very important. She's even of the uttermost importance to us.

-Wait, what?

-Have you ever heard of the Atlas?

-Who hasn't heard of them aside from your consanguine aristocrats living in Sina that marry between cousins since so long that they basically all share the same DNA?"

The Atlas weren't a gang per see. It was a sect. A goddamned sect. Kenny had always avoided their territories like the plague. Those crazy bastards believed in some kind of weird-ass Prophet that promised them a demonic army that would clean the planet and that would only let the true believers survive. Only the children of Atlas, the ones who held in them the genes of the divine light. As far as Kenny knew, they were, every single one of them including the babies, a bunch of kamikazes. He thought they all lacked a little something in their brains.

Erwin explained.

"We believe that the Atlas are just a cover up and that the Titans are actually behind it."

Kenny's face suddenly shifted from bored out of his mind to almost surprised. Yeah, okay, his face looked surprised. Not just almost.

"WHAT??? You think those retards are related to the most violent gang in history? I fail to see how faith can lead even the most moronic person ever to think that reselling a human liver on the black market is a sacred thing...

-I cannot explain in details how we discovered this but I can tell you that your sister is related to it all.

-Hah? How's that? What's it she got to do with all that?

-She and her family are the only ones who ever managed to escape a village controlled by the Atlas. She might have some crucial information for our investigation..."

Kenny sniggered.

"Well, awesome! Go ahead and knock yourself out. Kidnap her and have your fun. She barely began her Ackerman training so if you burn one or two of her phalanxes she'll probably spit it all out. If you were waiting for my approbation to torture her or something, well you got it!"

Erwin stopped Kenny's rambling with a hand gesture. 

"Wait a minute. We would rather not have to do this, to be quite honest. 

-So what? You'll ask her gently to tell you everything you asked about? A little bird is telling me that it ain't gonna be that easy. Who knows how long she's been in that goddamned sect? She might be way more brainwashed than you'd think.

-Well, of course, she will not talk to us. But to you? She will."

Kenny's whole body stopped moving for a while before he burst out laughing.

"Me? She got away when I was five! She knew Gena was too weak! She knew that if she left I'd have to take her place as the heir of the Ackerman  _knowledge_. She never thought one second to bring us with her to save us from all that shit. And you, you think that, more than thirty years later, she'll listen to whatever the fuck I have to say? You really think that? She doesn't give a damn! Not a single one! And why would she, huh?"

Erwin frowned. No, really, did Erwin train his face muscles to be able to move his goddamned eyebrows?

"I think that because of your... peculiar education you Ackermans have some difficulties to understand yourselves...

-...

-One way or another, your sister and her husband escaped after we managed to take this picture. We have not been able to find them again in six years. She might not have completed her assassin's formation but she certainly knows how to not be found if she doesn't want to be found. However, Kenny, you are a professional...

- **Ex** -professional. You're the one who helped me to stop all this. Definitely.

-Yes, of course. About that, I am not asking you to kill anyone. I only want you to find Mana and to convince her to come to us to share the information she has about the Atlas. Believe me, if we have managed to find her, _they_ will too. Sooner or later. They do have more reasons to see her dead than we have..."

The light in Erwin's eyes didn't allow for a no. It might have been said as though the principal had been asking for a favour but it was more an order than anything else. Survey Corps Academy needed the information that Mana held. Kenny was the only adequate tool to get said information. Nothing more. Nothing less. As he had already said, Kenny wasn't an idiot. He understood things without them being explained to him. He knew he had to do it and he knew things could and would certainly get ugly for him and his family if he didn't obey like a good little puppy.

Since he had too, Kenny would organise the most epic and grandiose family reunion ever seen... well, everything is relative.

 

* * *

 

A few months passed and just as Erwin had predicted (much to Kenny's dismay) the ex-assassin had found his very dear big sister.

It hadn't been easy, but it hadn't been anywhere near impossible either. All that was left for him to do was to approach her without her noticing and running away.

"Kenta Ackerman? You listening?"

Oh fuck. Carla had just used both his real first name AND his last name. Shit would get real soon...

"Aish, Carla, don't be a bitch. If you've got to ask, you know I'm not." Both of her eyebrows raised in surprise and Eren chuckled. Carla looked at him with a look in her eyes that meant 'you better stop laughing right now, you traitor'. She quickly brought her attention back to Kenny and pointed him with her finger.

"I swear that if I find out that you've left Eren alone all the damn weekend...

-Huh? What? Alone? But..."

He turned his head towards Levi. He was sitting on the couch with a book in hands but he wasn't reading it. Instead, he was looking at his uncle with a condescending face. Kenny felt a sudden urge to call his a dick. However, he already was the victim of Carla's anger. He'd better not make his predicament worse. Carla hated when the boys were vulgar. She felt like they had to talk correctly around her son... not that Eren didn't know about every single damn swear word there was. The boy was already able to spit really impressive insults when he wanted to.

Kenny thought about something and said it aloud.

"What about Levi? Can't he take care of Eren?

-Camping in the mountain-side. The whole weekend. It's supposed military training in a pseudo-real environment. You're a teacher at the Academy and you don't even know that, _uncle Kenny_?"

Kenny didn't know how he had done that, but Levi had just managed to make his name sound exactly like  _you asshole._ It was a gift that he envied him a lot at the moment.

"Shit, I completely forgot that. What about the old geezer?

-Oh, you mean Armin's grandpa? You know, Armin, Eren's best friend, the one who currently is inside Sina's walls to undergo a heart surgery?"

Oh. Yeah. Right. It already had been a year and a half since they'd met the mushroom dwarf (Levi had found the nickname. It might not have been the greatest nickname ever but it clearly was one hell of an improvement from tranny). Apparently, the blonde had found courage from his friendship with Eren and he'd decided to undergo the very fucking dangerous operation (it was that or dying, like, really soon) that could save him and offer him a normal life. Yes, now that he thought about it, he had heard them talk about it, a little while ago.

The Ackerman tried to open his mouth but Carla stopped him. 

"Oh, nah-han. No stupid excuses! You won't get out of this. I have to take this class if I want to be taken seriously at work. You know how much I want that job as the head nurse! And you promised you'd do your part. Eren cannot stay here alone worrying himself sick about his best friend for the whole weekend! He's too young to stay alone for this long anyways."

Eren pouted.

"I'm not a baby anymore! I'm seven and a half now!"

Levi looked at him with amusement in his eyes.

"As you were saying, Carla. He's still only just a young little boy. Still counting the half after his age..."

Eren crossed his arms over his lithe torso and stared viciously at his brother. Kenny wanted to say that it really wasn't such a good idea to bring him along to go and see his new crazy adopted aunt... but he couldn't. It was against the rules to talk about your mission in your living room just to win a goddamn argument. So Kenny did the only thing he could do. He sighed and bowed to Carla's fury. He'd bring the shitty kid with him if that was it took. It wouldn't put him in any danger anyways. Well, with a little bit of luck...

* * *

Who was Kenny kidding? Things would definetely go wrong.  

Not because of any kind of danger. Well, define danger. If you think about a fucked up bitch who abandoned her sibbling, nah. No problems. But an ex-assassin who can't stand his wife's kid for more than an hour or so? Yeah, that's the kind of danger 

Well, let's define danger. If you think about a fucked up bitch who abandoned her sibbling, nah. No problems. But an ex-assassin who can't stand his wife's kid for more than an hour or so? Yeah.

Kenny was about to skin Eren alive. They had left not long after the sun had risen and they had at least half a day of driving ahead of them. The thing was that Eren, no matter how mature he was sometimes, was nothing more than a kid. He needed to pee every thirty minutes. He sang along each. And. Every. Single. Fucking. Song. On. The. Fucking. Radio. He was just like some kind of jukebox. A really strident and out of pitch jukebox. And he basically jumped on his seat like some kind of drunk grasshopper on steroids. The movement brought Kenny's eyes everywhere exept on the damn road...

It took them about two hours more than predicted to reach the mountain.

Once he'd parked his relatively discret car far enough in the woods that it wouldn't be seen from the road, Kenny draged Eren behind him and they began thair hike. The weird thing about Eren (not only weird, disturbing too, if Kenny was being honest with himself) was that he never asked questions. The kid followed Kenny, played with sticks, ran around a bit, looked at flowers as if it wasn't weird that they'd driven for hours to go on a hike on a mountain lost in the literal middle of fucking nowhere. Now that he could see how the kid really acted, he wholeheartedly believed Levi when he said that the kid was an alien of some sort. You didn't need to be the brightest person on heart to notice that something was wrong with the kid's brain. He was too damn happy and full of energy. His damn eyes were another clue that something wasn't quite right with him. 

All of a sudden, the kid stopped moving and locked his greenish-blueish eyes in Kenny's. Kenny's spine shook from a vicious shiver. He felt as though Eren had just read his mind...

"Are we still far away, uncle Kenny?"

The man almost told him that they'd probably already be there if he hadn't been whinning about his weak bladder all the way but he bit his tongue. Damn the brat's eyes... Instead he took his map and compas.

"Still a hour to go."

Eren frowned and, Kenny had to admit it, the kid looked simply adorable as he did.

"I'll be hungry, though. I hope that there's food, where we're going!"

Kenny couldn't find it in himself to tell the kid that the chances for them to stay over for dinner were more than thin...

* * *

 

It was a day like any other day.

It had already been a month since Mikasa had gone through the marking ceremony. Her mother had explained to her that it was an ancient tradition that every member of their clan had gone through. The Ackermans were part of a really ancient Antyan family that moved to Paradiz a long, long time ago. They were Japanese in the old world. Even though Mikasa couldn't really understand what it meant exactly, she had kind of understood that it was... really damn cool. To be more honest, what she thought was cool was the mark, the tattoo, that was now adorning her skin. What's more, her mother had congratulated her for not screaming even once during the ritual...

"Mikasa, what do you wanna eat for dinner?"

The girl, happy to be abe to choose, didn't even think for more than a second.

"Rabbit! I wanna eat rabbit!"

Both Mikasa and her mother exclaimed at the same time. The girl and woman looked at each other with amusement and laughed. Mikasa's father shook his head and kept on washing the vegetables that they had just harvested.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. I don't even know why I even bothered asking. That's all you girls ever wanna eat!"

Mana clicked her tongue with a smirk. 

"We're gonna need a few herbs to season the best rabbit in the world...

-Mummy makes the best rabbit in the world! And I know what herbs it takes!"

Mikasa's mother pretended to act surprised when she saw how excited her daughter was about the rabbit.

"Oh yeah? Is that true? Do you mean that you're old enough already to choose the herbs all by yourself?"

Mikasa nodded her head with energy and pulled on the collar of her dress to expose her tattooed shoulder. Her skin was still a little pink around it, not quite healed yet but almost.

"I passed the ritual like a big girl! I sure can go pick a few herbs!"

Mana clapped her hands.

"Oh, yes, of course! Alright then, Mikasa Ackerman, if you accept it, here is your mission: bring me the herbs that it'll take to make the best rabbit in the world, but don't forget..."

Mikasa had already jumped from her chair and she grabbed her coat. She hurriedly put it on and she ran towards the front door. Her mum stopped her dead in her track with her voice.

"... and absolutely do not forget to dress warmly!"

Her hand on the handle, Mikasa turned around. Her father kneeled in front of her, buttoned her coat and put a wool hat one her head. With a small laugh, the girl replaced the hat on her head so that it didn't cover her eyes anymore. Her dad patted her head with affection. As for Mana, she huffed with a happy look on her face.

"What an overprotective daddy you make!"

Mikasa leant her head against her father's hand and looked at him with love filling her eyes.

"Don't worry, daddy, I won't go away! I'll always be here, with you and mummy!

-Hey, Mikasa, do you think that this rabbit is gonna cook itself? Come on, go accomplish your mission, young Ackerman!"

Her parents watched her leave the house and run towards the greenhouse with sadness in their eyes.

It had snowed all week. The whole forest was covered in a thick layer of white snow.

The cold air was biting her fingers and the tip of her nose but Mikasa loved winter. Everything felt like it was purified. The air was crisp, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the trees looked like they were protected by the snow and ice instead of their leaves. The naked trunks made funny shapes at night when the moon was out. Her father and she told themselves frightening stories close to the fire. Mikasa loved it because she could spend a lot of time cuddling with her parents, next to the fire, when she pretended to be too afraid to go to sleep alone in her bed.

She reached the greenhouse very fast. She grabbed the gardening tools and started to take the herbs she needed as well and taking care of a few plants. She quickly was done and she took the herbs in her hand. 

She jogged towards her home. She wanted to heat up her hands in front of the fire. When he got closer to the front door, she stopped and stared at it. It was open. She frowned. She was sure that she had clossed it. Even if she hadn't, her dad would have. She hopped that the house wouldnèt be too cold...

And then she noticed.

Footsteps in the snow. 

Her heart skipped a beat.

 No one ever came to the mountain. No one ever isited them. From times to time, her dad leaved the house to go to the village. He sold a few vegetables and bought a few necesary products but that was the only contact that the small family had with other people. 

Her heart now beating really fast in her chest, she walked closer to the door and pushed it slowly.

She never could have imagined who was behind it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (may 14)  
> Hey guys! I'm alive (barely)! I currently have pneumonia so right now my life is just sleep, caugh, take medication, try to go to school, cry a little bit, sleep, wake up coughing, sleep, and rinse repeat and as anticipated, this chapter is hell to translate but I am alive. Thanks for your patience :)


	8. Two beasts in the forest (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, hi?  
> My anxiety has been acting up like crazy to the point that I barely could leave my house. I'm on antidepressants now, so hopefully, that'll work 'cause my anxiety pills aren't working very well. Also, I haven't been sleeping much (all thanks to my anxiety). School is over, for now, thank gods, so that should help but I've got bronchitis and. Yeah. My life is basically hell since a few months. I didn't have Internet for a few weeks, my friends all kind of stopped talking to me for a while... And I lost my progression. I was done with this chapter a month ago and I just needed to read it to make sure it was good but everything disappeared.  
> I moved and I now live in a residence hall. I don't have WIFI in my room, only in the kitchen (yeah, in the kitchen).  
> Also, I spent a few days in the psychiatric ward because I was suicidal. I'm better now but I learned I have borderline personality disorder.  
> So, that's what my life has been like. I had a hard time just to stay alive and to keep on going to school. I couldn't work on My Beautiful Beast for that time but now I think I can start translating it again.  
> Please be patient?

There were two of them 

A man, a really tall one, and a small boy. Mikasa had never seen another kid before. Teenagers, babies, but never children. Holding tight on her father's shirt as she observed the two intruders, she focused all her attention on the boy. He had a warm khaki parka and a bright red scarf around his neck. His hair was a warm chocolate brown colour and his eyes were a sparkling blue-green colour. Mikasa had never seen eyes like that before. Her mother's eyes were blue-grey and her own were black like ink, just like her father's. As for her hair, they were as black and straight as the stranger's own.

Mikasa then realised that the man looked like her mother. 

The boy looked at the stew with a deep longing. A little more and would've been drooling. He didn't seem to notice the tension that made the air hard to breathe. Since her father still hadn't thrown the axe he kept hidden in the kitchen at all times at the two of them, she assumed that the strangers were, more or less, guests. They had never had guests before. Was it always so uncomfortable? Did it always feel like there would be a fight happening soon even though there was no threat?

The tall man finally spoke.

"Hey there, Mana. It's been a while, huh?"

Mikasa didn't like the man. He looked a lot like her mother, yes, but he visibly made her uncomfortable. Her mother had always been composed, before. Even when a grizzly mother had almost beheaded them a year earlier, as they had been out in the forest to collect mushrooms and herbs, her mum had stayed perfectly calm.

Mikasa felt her father growing tense beside her.

"Honey.. who's that?"

She looked down and answered with a small voice.

"Kenta...

-It's Kenny, now. A kind of baptising, ya know? The one you ran away from?"

She raised her head but still refused to look her husband in the eyes.

"He's my little brother."

A deep, deafening silence. 

Her father nodded his head as though that explained everything. Mikasa looked at the man. He wore a weird cowboy hat, military rangers, a leather jacket and no other warm clothes to protect him from the cold. Just like her mother, he didn't seem like he could feel the cold. Even when there was a snow storm outside, she only wore her thin jacket.

So, this man was her uncle? The idea that she had a family aside from her parents, somewhere, out there, in the  _outside world_ , felt extremely foreign to her. Mikasa had always felt like the world included no one but her mommy, daddy and herself.

Kenny sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Look, I ain't gonna sugarcoat this. I ain't here for some vendetta bullshit or some other reason that your traitorous head might have thought of, Mana. Nuh-huh. I ain't the same man anymore. I live my life and I care about yours as much as I care about my first knife. In other damn words, not at all. I'm only here 'cause I've been asked to find you."

The man put his hand on the boy's head as if it was proof enough of what he was saying. Mikasa then saw that the kid was looking at her. He might have been for a while now. Her cheeks heated up and she hid her face behind her father as her mother gathered the courage to ask:

"If not for revenge, please tell me, what do you want, Kent... Kenny?"

The man tilted his head and a strange light appeared in his eyes. He opened his mouth.

"Aren't you gonna ask me how Gena is doin'?"

Another silence. Even more crushing than the others had been. Her mother clenched her fists and her eyes filled with tears as though she was going to cry. Or throw the dishes at Kenny's head in rage.

Mikasa didn't really know which one it was. 

"How is Gen... 

-She's dead. Like a bitch. In a rotten, shabby apartment. She died lying in her own shit. She was sick, Mana. Her brain was rotting away, slowly. Her son saw her die, he was there all along..."

Filled with tears, Mana's eyes looked at the boy standing still next to Kenny. The Ackerman had a dry laugh at that.

"Nah, not him. Lemme tell you, you'd know who he is if you saw him. I'm only borrowing this one."

Mikasa's father jumped on his feet to hold and hug her mother. He looked as though he was tho only thing preventing her mommy from crumbling into a thousand little pieces on the floor. The hand Mikasa had used to her father's shirt stayed in the hair. She was shocked and upset. Was that what an uncle was like? If so, she didn't want one. Why was he so mean with her mommy?

Her daddy finally spoke.

"Enough! Cut to the chase, won't you? What are you doing here?"

Kenny balanced his weight from one foot to the other. He made the little girl think of the grizzly bear. He, however, was not driven by the same instinct. She had wanted to protect her cubs, he only wanted to hurt and destroy, or so it seemed.

"Yes, I guess you're right, uh? Straight to the point, I like that. You too, sis?"

The affectionate word had been said with so much hatred that it made Mikasa shiver.

"Anyway, I guess that if you're hidden that deep in the damn mountains, it means that you know perfectly that you're being chased by a lot of people, right?

-Oh, please. Is that why you're here, Kenny? Are we one of your damn contract?"

Mana had considerably paled but Kenny only laughed with disdain. His eyes remained unaffected by it all.

"No. As I've said before, I ain't the same as I used to be. I don't do that kind of things anymore. My new employer is actually a fu... damn policeman."

Mana's face seemed to decompose itself from the choc. Kenny smirked at the face she pulled.

"You know, I meant it. I changed. But who cares, uh? That's why I'm here, though. Since I could find you, it means that others are gonna be here soon too... Others I'm sure you don't want to see..."

Mana looked at her daughter with something akin to despair in her eyes. The girl wanted to make herself as small as she could. 

"No, Kenny, not here... they couldn't...

-Look, Kenny. Stay for lunch, you and the kid. Mana makes a really good rabbit." Mikasa's father said to Eren. "In the meantime, we'll go gather some firewood."

Kenny nodded his head after a few moments of thinking. 

"I'm literally dying of happiness at the idea of getting myself lost in the forest with a total stranger armed with an axe! It reminds me of my first trip out of Heaven when I was eight and...

-Kenta!"

He shot daggers at her through his eyes.

"It's Kenny for you."

He then smiled like a madman.

"Hey, Mana, I just gotta ask. What do you intend to do with that kitchen knife?"

Mikasa's mother opened her eyes widely, surprised to find the weapon in her hand. She dropped it on the table as though it had burned her. Kenny's face still held the creepy smile.

"Glad to see that an Ackerman will always be an Ackerman. Well, why don't we go out, my dear brother-in-law? Let's gather some firewood. Don't forget your axe. As fro you, Eren, stay with auntie Mana, okay?"

The boy, so silent that everyone else had forgotten he was there, smiled gently and said:

"Are we really gonna eat rabbit? I never ate rabbit before!"

Kenny patted his head with barely concealed affection and Mikasa felt as though her uncle had become an entirely new man in those few seconds.

Her father and Kenny left the house. Without the axe. Mikasa thought about reminding the two men of the object but she realised that they hadn't gone outside to pick some wood. No, they had gone to talk, between men. 

Eren was fidgeting, visibly boiling with repressed energy.

"Auntie Mana, do you want help with the rabbit? Levi taught me to peel potatoes..."

The woman held a shaky smile as she looked at the boy.

"No thank you, Eren. It's sweet but rabbits aren't like potatoes. Why don't you help Mikasa to lay the table instead?"

Eren nodded his head and turned his head towards the girl. Mikasa felt as though she had just been spotted by a predator. With a friendly face, he called her name. She shivered. Like a robot, she walked to the cabinet in which they kept the dishes. She climbed on her stool, stood on her toes and grabbed plates. She put them in the hands of the boy. He was waiting calmly, his arms extended towards her. They were about to finish their task when they heard a loud clang. Mikasa's mommy had just dropped a cooking pot. The girl saw her trembling form clinging to the sink as though she would fall without it. She heard her say, in a pathetic voice, "Gena... oh god, Gena, I'm so... so sorry..." Mikasa wanted to approach her mother, she wanted to hug her and cry with her even though she did not understand what was going on. She hated her uncle more and more with each passing minute. Eren grabbed her hand as she made a move to go and try to comfort her mother. He shook his head left and right. He asked with the softest voice ever:

"Auntie Mana, do you need anything to cook the rabbit? Mikasa and I can go."

Mana stopped her trembling and wiped her eyes without facing them. She said that yes, she needed something.

"Just some rosemary."

Eren looked at the herbs on the counter. He recognised the rosemary but he didn't say anything. He put his hand on Mikasa's mouth when she almost said that she had already brought some. 

"Mikasa, please show Eren where the rosemary is. You'll be really sweet children if you do that, okay?"

Mikasa wiped the single tear going down her cheek.

"Yes. We'll be back soon."

 

The tears in Mikasa's eyes had dried up by the time the two children entered the greenhouse. 

Eren was calm and quiet behind her. He looked around him with curiosity. 

"It's really cool here!"

Mikasa felt like she was boiling inside. SHe couldn't hold it in anymore. Everything was their fault! Thirty earlier, they were happy, the three of them, really happy and peaceful. And now? Her mommy was crying all alone in the kitchen and her father had disapeared somewhere in the woods with a man that could be dangerous. Yes, it was all their fault.

She threw a mean face at Eren.

"It's your fault!"

The boy didn't answer back and she decided to say what she wanted to say.

"Go back to your house! I don't care that he's my uncle! Kenny is so mean!"

Eren frowned and answered.

"Yes, that's true. He's never been that mean before today. Maybe it's because your mommy was mean first.

-WHAT!?"

How could that have been? Her mommy was the nicest person ever. She wouldn't even harm a fly, let alone a person.

"You're not right!"

Eren shrugged.

"Kenny is not mean. He's just mad. I've never seen him this mad before but it'll be fine soon. Hey, what's that?"

He pointed thyme. 

Mikasa couldn't understand that strange boy. He didn't care about the insults she had said about him and Kenny. He almost seemed to live in another world entirely. He made her weary. She turned her back to him and sit in a corner of the greenhouse. Her mommy needed time to calm down. She sent them both away but that didn't mean that they had to talk. They'd wait for a little and go back to eat. After that, the girl hoped that she'd never see the two men ever again.

 

They waited at least fifteen minutes before going back inside. 

Since her mother had seemed really shaken up, the girl kept on adding five minutes to the moment they would go back, just to be sure she wouldn't see her mommy cry but Eren kept on complaining that he was hungry. She just couldn't stand his cries anymore. They left the greenhouse and walked in the cold. When they were closer to the house, they heard a loud racket. The kids ran towards the front door. It was wide open. It didn't look like someone forgot to close it, more like someone had broken it down. Her heart skipped a beat for a second time that day. Eren was still very close behind her.

When they got closer and could see inside, they both felt paralysed.

There, right in front of them, a man held Mikasa's mother's bloody head in his hand. He had clearly banged her head on the table, the two children thought. Mikasa screamed.

"MOMMY!"

When she heard and saw her, Mana seemed like she'd found some force in herself. She started to try to break free from the man's grip and lost a handful of hair in the process. 

"No! Go! The both of you, run away and find Kenta! GO!!!"

She kept on screaming as she fought the man, who was stronger than she was. Even so, he clearly was having trouble with her. He hit her on the head with the handle of the long knife he held in his right hand.

In shock, Mikasa tried to approach to help her mother. The man pushed an almost fainted Mana away from him. He straightened his back and his face was red from rage.

"Sister Mana, it seems you have been living in sin... you gave birth to a daughter?"

The girl was petrified in fear as the man threw a terrifying look her way. Mana had gotten back up without a sound. With trembling legs, she grabbed one of the knives that were lying on the table before attacking the man, screaming her lungs out. A terrifying, banshee-like scream that came straight up from her guts. She stabbed the man in between his ribs. 

Mikasa screamed too but in fear.

The man cussed and brandished his long knife. He buried it deep in Mana's throat. Mikasa's screaming changed in intensity as her mother threw her an incredulous look. A small stream of too warm blood hit the girl's face as light left her mommy's eyes. The woman fell face down on the floor and a puddle of blood started to cover the wood. 

"... no... No... NO! MOMMY!!!"

The man stared at the knife in his hand with disgust. 

Mikasa fell to her knees. Her heart stopped beating. 

Her heart stopped beating. 

Her lungs didn't drag air in anymore.  

She couldn't see a thing, only black.  

She screamed to the point of scorching her throat but she couldn't hear herself. 

The man swore once again and grabbed his ribs.

"Shit! It's your fault, you bitch!"

The silhouette of a second man appeared in the still open front door. The newly arrived male groaned.

"Brother Hantson, I thought I had told you that we need them alive...

-She attacked me! I'M BLEEDING!!! What was I supposed to do?

-Ugh. Fine. Let us hope that brother Girez will be luckier than us. He should be able to bring the husband alive. 

He then looked at the children with dead eyes. Eren, who had mysteriously managed to get close to the kitchen table, had curled up on himself. When the man looked at him in the eyes, the kid started trembling and his green eyes filled with tears. The second man crooked an eyebrow. 

"Children?"

Brother Hantson looked at the knife in his hands and groaned. 

"I think the girl is her's...

-And the boy?

-I dunno... they were together."

He nodded his head. 

"I've seen something that looked like a greenhouse when I patrolled the perimeter. They must have been hidden there. Very well. Since Atla's will brought them to us, it was meant to be. We'll use them to convince brother Ackerman to talk to us like a civilized person. Brother Hantson, stay with them. I'll look if there's anyone else in the greenhouse."

Hantson reluctantly nodded his head. 

All Mikasa could see when the assassin grabbed her by the arm was blood. Blood and that stupid lifeless face that still looked at her as though it had just been surprised. her mommy. Her gentle mommy was dead. 

* * *

 

He had sat them in a corner of the room as he ransacked the bathroom, looking for a first aid kit.

Mikasa was sitting in the foetus position on the floor. She could see her mother's raven black hair from where she was. It didn't move. Didn't flow behind her as she worked in the house. Silent tears rolled down Mikasa's cheeks as the girl tried to convince herself that all of this was only a nightmare. No way, no, there was no way that any of this was real. Close to her, Eren was fidgeting. He leaned close to her ear.

"Mikasa... hey, Mikasa, do you hear me?"

She nodded her head without really realising it. 

He sighed.

"Good. I'll need your help."

She didn't react at all. He kept on.

"I'll need your help to get rid of that man."

Mikasa woke up from her state of numbness and threw an unbelieving look in Eren's way. What the hell was he even saying? Had he lost his mind? Her mommy had just been killed by that man and he just asked her if she could help him to get rid of him? Just like that?

That didn't make sense. Nothing made sense anymore. Maybe if she didn't move, they'd kill her without making her suffer. Then, she'd join her mommy...

Eren slapped her with all of his strength. Her head hit the wall behind her and she saw stars flying around. She felt lost as she looked at him. He seemed completely insane. The green of his eyes was almost gone and his breath was short but the thing that truly made it worse was his smile. 

"You felt that yeah? That means that you're alive. Hold on to the pain. The world is cruel. The bad guys are everywhere, they come back over and over again. Unless we fight. And we can get him."

She still looked like she didn't understand what he was saying but time was short. The other man had left to inspect the greenhouse. He would take his time but it would be kind of fast. Mikasa and he didn't have a lot of time to flee and find Kenny. However, if they wanted to succeed, they needed to be fast. They only had one shot, they couldn't make a mistake. Hantson came back from the bathroom, half-naked, his midriff covered in bandages. Eren blocked his breathing to look as though he was lacking air and then started to cry as loud as he could. As surprised as surprised could be, Mikasa looked at the tears rolling down Eren's cheeks. The boy dried them with his sleeves without getting all of them. As surprised as Mikasa was, the man aproached them.

"Hey, kid! What the hell's going on.

-Pee... I wanna... I wanna pee!! Don't kill m-me...

-Gosh, shut up! I won't kill you 'cause you gotta fucking pee. Go!"

Eren sniffed noisily. 

"I... I cant...

-Ah? Why's that?

-M-my ankle hurts..."

The man mumbled and swore under his breath as he crouched down to look at the place that the kid was pointing with his trembling hands. That's when Eren grabbed the knife he had hidden in his sleeve after stealing it from the kitchen's table. He planted it in the man's eye with all the strength he could muster. Hantson screamed in gruesome pain as he fell back. His long weapon fell on the ground close to Mikasa as he put his hands on his bleeding face. 

Eren screamed.

"Come on, Mikasa, take it!!! Hurry! FIGHT!"

But Mikasa couldn't move. Nothing made sense anymore. Nothing at all. Why was this boy fighting with so much energy? Didn't he realise how futile all of this was? Why was he even fighting? Her cheek still hurt. It hurt. It hurt a lot. 

"MIKASA!"

The man grabbed the boy's arm and threw him across the room. Mikasa's eyes looked down on the knife close to her hand. Then on her mommy's hair. Not more than an hour sooner, they were happy. They were alive.

_"You're so strong, my sweet little Mikasa. I've called you like that so that you'll find the force to endure and do things, so that you'll know how to take the world in your hands and bend it to your will. So that you'll be stronger than I ever was, so that you'll never leave anything behind. So that you'll live a happy life. A life with no regret..."_

She burst out laughing. Something clicked in her and all of her cells, as well as her blood, froze in her body. She couldn't feel anything but the barely there pain of Eren's slap on her cheek. THe pain of life.

Yes, this was the pain that proved that she was alive. 

She grabbed the long knife, still laughing like a madman. It was almost as though it had been made especially for her. Everything seemed crystal clear around her. Her body had never been this light. Her hands were secured around the knife.  

She did a 90 degrees turn and jumped on the still slouched-down man on the floor. She blocked his head between her thighs. His breathing was blocked and his vertebrae were crushed by her legs. She knew how to hold him down. Her body just moved around by itself as her laughing doubled in intensity.

The world was cruel.

She had to fight.

She stabbed his throat. Again. And again. Blood was flying everywhere as the man under her was spasming. She was plunging her knife for the sixth or seventh time when a noise grabbed her attention. She turned her head towards the door that led from her parents' bedroom (where they currently were) to the kitchen. The second man was staring at her, baffled. He didn't want to believe what his eyes were telling him. Mikasa almost choked as her laughing slowly died down. The man barely had the time to understand what was going on when a scream brought his attention away from the covered in blood girl.

Eren was running towards the man. 

The boy's head was bleeding and the man understood, too late, that he wasn't going to attack. Eren got past him and raced towards the front door. The man swore and turned around to catch the boy but it was a mistake. A fatal one. The knife, still warm from the blood of his accomplice, slid between two of his vertebrae. The man fell forward, pushed by the weight of Mikasa's body. Many of the girl's fingers broke because of the way she held her knife and the impact had travelled up her hand. She didn't care about that pain. She stabbed the man's neck two more times before a bloodied hand grabbed her's. Eren's voice reached her ears as though it had escaped from a dream. It was soft and calm. Comforting.

"He's dead..."

She let go of the knife, still buried in the man's neck, and her arms fell beside her torso.

She wanted to feel something. Anything. Just not this empty feeling that filled her whole being.

Eren grabbed her hand and dragged her behind him as they left the house. It was snowing outside. She didn't have a coat but she didn't feel the cruel bite of the freezing air. The idea that she resembled her mum at that moment should have made her emotional but it didn't. She was too tired for that. All of a sudden a warm, comforting thing touched her neck. Eren had just put his red scarf around her neck and face. Mikasa, eyes filled with uncertainty, stared at him. He was still firmly holding her hand but his nose was raised. 

"The world is cruel but look how pretty it is..."

She looked up too. Her gaze got lost on the falling snowflakes. They were so, oh so pretty, falling in circles, falling from the grey sky. There was white everywhere. The forest floor. The trees. The snow in the sky... She held Eren's hand even tighter.

She had survived.

* * *

 

Kenny killed their assailant before the man even understood what had just happened. 

Before the man appeared, his brother-in-law had been sprouting the same old line. Again and again, like a dog trying to catch its own tail, running in circles, never getting anywhere. Only "We don't wanna have anything to do with the Atlas or sub-groups. Nothing to do with it ever again. That involves talking about them, be it to the police or anyone else about them. We just wanna be free from them and finally be at peace" or "I beg you, please let us grab a few things and flee from here. In memory of the time you shared with Mana in the past. Surely you can't hate her as much as you show. You're only mad " and, even worse "Your niece, Mikasa, she still needs her mother. She's innocent and she has the right to live a simple, calm life". 

Kenny, of course, answered that if they had truly wanted to give Mikasa a happy, pure life, they should have stayed the fuck away from a psychopathic sect. 

In all of this almost-not discussion, Kenny regretted his past life. His murdering one. At least, if Mana and her family had been his targets, he wouldn't have had to hear all that bullshit. He would have simply lodged a bullet in their heads and be done with it (yeah, he avoided killing his family members with a blade. It was a little bit too... yes, too personal. You know, work ethics, things like that...) 

Then the man appeared and after Kenny killed him, the men ran to save the kids (and, in the idiot's case, Mana). Kenny had never run that fast before in his life. The very idea of finding Eren's dead body, his weird eyes open in fear gave him the chills for quite a few reasons. He was pretty much convinced that Levi would spend the rest of his life chasing him with a weapon in his hand. Well, Carla would surely gut him and force feed his balls down his throat.

When the men arrived at the house, they found the two kids holding their hands, sitting in the snow right in front of the open door. 

They were covered in blood, not moving for one bit.

Kenny quickly checked the perimeter before entering the house. He spent a few seconds looking at his sister's body.

Nothing. Just nothing. No emotions. 

In the end, both of his sisters had been too weak for this ruthless world. He closed Mana's eyes and examined the other two bodies.

They were butchered. Amateur work. The wounds had weird angles. 

He went outside and stared at the kids for a little while. They were both being held in Mikasa's father's arms. The man looked at him with questions in his eyes. Kenny shook his head right and left and he understood that his wife hadn't made it alive. He got up and ran in the house. A scream of rage and pain soon pierced the frozen, mortuary silence.

Kenny got closer to the kids. He stood still in front of them. Neither of them was crying. A weird shiver travelled up his spine. These brats were reminding him of Levi. He crouched in front of them and asked:

"Which one of you did it?"

A silence. Then:

"I did. I put the knife in their throat."

Kenny nodded as if she had been showing him a 'pretty picture' she had drawn. She raised her head and looked him dead in the eyes. Oh well. They might not have been the same pit of darkness that he and Levi had, but they surely were as cold. It was, without any doubts, the look of an Ackerman. Kenny gently smiled.

"THat godforsaken blood is though to get rid of, isn't it, little niece?"

He put his hand on her head. His eyes travelled of their own to Eren and a new kind of shiver got him. The softest, kindest smile he had ever seen in his life was painted on his face as he said:

"You see, Mikasa, you're not alone. You have me, your daddy and uncle Kenny. Everything is gonna be okay."

It was at that moment that Kenny knew (he fucked up (okay, sorry, just too easy XD ))

It was at that moment that Kenny knew. Eren may not have been the one to kill the men, this time, but there were no doubts that he could've done it. He wouldn't have been as deeply affected as Mikasa. No, Eren would've been the same old himself. Here he was, covered in dried and frozen blood as if he simply had had a normal bad day. Kenny got back up on his feet.

If the Ackermans were monsters, half-death angels, half-humans, then what kind of monster was hiding beneath these sparkly emerald eyes?

* * *

 

Instead of clinging to her father, she got a hold of Eren and didn't let go. They held hands for all the way back.

They were still holding hands as they travelled in Trost, Sunday morning. In all the time that it took for Kenny and Mikasa's father to tell Erwin what had happened, even when the medics examined and treated them, they didn't let the other out of their sight. A weird, powerful link was formed between the children. When he found them in Eren's hospital bed, clinging to one another, Kenny thought he was seeing two savage beasts, looking for comfort in the menacing presence of the other one. They were patched up everywhere, dirty but strangely calm.

On that day, two beasts met in the forest.

To never leave the other.


	9. Crack (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey.  
> I'm sorry it took so long. So, so sorry. Still not giving up, although it's... well, I won't lie, it's gonna take a while for me to be able to get back in the beat but I really, really wanna do better. I'm already working on the next chapter and I will hopefully have it updated in two weeks tops.

Carla was holding Eren in her arms, crouched down in front of him when Levi entered the hospital room. Without missing a single second, the teenager punched Kenny with one of the most powerful hits he ever threw at someone. His uncle didn't do anything to defend himself. He just stood there and took it. He didn't say anything either, causing Carla's face to fall to the ground in surprise. 

No, Kenny didn't do anything. He stood there and withstood Levi's icy stare. His eyes suddenly emptied of the anger that had been there just a few seconds before. No, he only had his normal resting bitch face as he said:

"I knew you'd end up fucking everything up."

Carla got up, still holding Eren in her arms, as she declared:

"Levi... It wasn't his fault. He didn't know that something like that would happen. 

-Who cares? The only thing he had to do was to not let Eren out of his sight and here we are. In a damn hospital."

Eren cut Levi's rambling.

"I'm fine, Levi. My head doesn't even hurt anymore."

Levi looked at the kid. He had just removed his bandage from his head. Kenny tried to stop him.

"Oy, brat, don't do that! You've got a concuss..."

His voice died at the back of his throat. There, right under Eren's bandage... nothing. His caramel skin was clear of any scab, clear of bruises.

Carla visibly paled.

"I heal reaaaallyyyyyyy fast! Like a superhero! And without me, Mikasa might be dead. I'm even more like a superhero!

-Im... Imposible. Fucking impossible!"

Carla looked more and more sickly. Levi, trying to ease the tension, asked:

"Who's Mikasa?"

Eren looked at him with a bright, malicious smile.

"Your cousin!"

Both of Levi's eyebrows tried to reach the sky.

"My WHAT??????"

* * *

It had already been six long months since the Ackerman's reunion's incident. Since then, a lot of things had changed in the little family.

First: Carla. She always found a way to get back home every night even if that meant that she only would have four hours of sleep that night before going back to work. She was the one who had to put Eren to bed before he went to sleep. One night, out of curiosity, Levi had listened what was going on in the bedroom, behind the half-closed door. Carla's soft voice was singing a weird song in a foreign language. A really foreign one at that.

Even more curious, Levi dared to look inside the room. Eren, far from sleeping, was sitting, crossed-legs, on the bed. His head was slowly swinging from left to right without looking away from his mum. He looked like a hypnotised savage beast.

Almost hypnotised too, Levi stood there, looking at the strange display without knowing what to do or say. Once the song finished, Eren's eyes closed by themselves and he almost collapsed on himself. Carla caught her son before it happened and laid him down on his bed. She put his comforter on his sleeping body and kissed his forehead.

Levi had gotten away from the door and was now standing in front of his room. When Carla got out of Eren'S room, Levi pretended that he was leaving his bedroom. She threw a strange look at him and smiled awkwardly. She then avoided his eyes and declared:

"I know it doesn't look like it but... I know that this story with Mikasa's mother affected him a lot. I'd be so happy if he didn't have nightmares..."

The teenager stiffly nodded his head.

"Eren is strong, Carla. Don't worry too much. You look so damn tired, you should sleep more."

She did look tired. Almost looked like she was about to collapse on the ground and not wake up for, like, a lifetime. It was always the case when she spent half an hour to put Eren to bed.

She nodded without much energy.

"I think that's what I'll do. I'm going to bed..."

She then walked away, in her room's direction.

After that, Levi always avoided Eren's room when it was time for the kid to go sleep.

Second: Kenny.

Ever since Mikasa and Mitch Ackerman had entered his life, Kenny hadn't been the same even though he didn't really change that much. Erwin had taken charge of Mitch and Levi learned the truth about the secret mission that had been bestowed on his uncle. At first, he was freaking mad at Erwin for it but he quickly understood that the blond man would do anything to keep to his words. He would do anything to clear the country from its gangrene by getting rid of the gangs and mafia-like organisations. It was that determination that had convinced Levi to join the Survey Corp. 

So yeah, Erwin had used Kenny to do the dangerous job but let's be real: it would've been odd if the blond hadn't done something like that.

To Levi's eyes, it was clear that Kenny was doing everything to try to amend himself. He and Carla had cohabited for quite a while without even talking to each other. Their interactions were forced and borderline too polite. 

Until the day that Carla seemed to have forgiven him for putting his son in danger. Kenny invested himself like never before in his job. He did what he could to help Mikasa and Mitch to move in a house on the street next to theirs. Erwin also helped in hiring Mitch. Kenny knew the blond must have done it to be able to keep an eye on the traumatised man without him noticing. The ex-assassin also asked Mikasa if she would have liked to learn how to fight like an Ackerman which the girl gladly accepted. 

"The bad guys always come back, I need to be prepared to fight, this way I can protect Eren, he'll need help..."

Levi couldn't understand how Eren had gotten the girl to be so overly protective of him. However, he noticed, Kenny was certainly making sure not to repeat the mistakes he had with him with the girl.

However, if the list of changes had to be classified in order of importance, Eren would have won the trophy.

Clearly.

The previously hyperactive kid was now constantly tired and it seemed like Eren's good spirits got the fuck away. Of course, he still liked to play basketball with Levi, sneak into his room to do his homework, bother him anytime he could... but it wasn't the same anymore. The savage light that used to burn behind his sparkling eyes simply wasn't there anymore. It had been put out, as simple as that. It no longer was. Eren looked... normal. The craziness that had always been hiding in the corners of the boy's mind was missing.

If Levi hadn't as worried as he was, he probably would have been happy about that change.

As for Carla, she wasn't worried in the least. Her son was growing up, after all, wasn't it normal that he would mature and calm down? She also said that he was depressive because of the time he had spent separated from Armin, who was still in Sina.

But one night, Levi got really worried. Eren, the most insomniac kid on the entire planet, had gone to bed by himself at freaking 8 o'clock. Kenny simply told him that the Mana incident had been quite traumatising, especially when the cadavers were as butchered as they'd been and that the contrary would have been even more worrying. After all, Eren wasn't really an Ackerman but merely an _outsider_ that had been added to their family (and troubles). 

Still, Levi wasn't convinced.

At all. 

The kid had shown him more than once how borderline psychopathic he was, so how was it possible that he was acting like a perfectly sane little boy?

Levi's life was consequently tinted in a bitter-sweet numb and calm atmosphere. His friends and fellow CK, of course, couldn't have been happier. Said atmosphere wasn't doing any good to Levi's temper and it showed whenever he would fight against the Elite (or normal student (well, normal, they'd gotten in the school with their parents' money)). The beginning of their third and final year felt like hell to them. None of them were able to end up anywhere aside from the infirmary when their classes were over if they'd had to fight with Levi. In fact, they even started to like the criminal kids, thanks to them volunteering to train with their hellspawn Captain.

As if life had done everything it could to make him suffer, Levi now had to endure six classes of twenty students in the second year and ten classes of twenty-five in the first year, and that despite the fact that Erwin still hadn't shown any results yet. People somehow still decided to heavily found his project.

Levi, because of his incredibly good grades and prowesses kinda became the school's top student. In both the academic side and the popularity one. The very much so increased amount of kids in the school also increased the number of groupies the teenager had. He kind of became a legend at first in the Academy and then outside of it as well. The poor students that idolised Levi were incredibly masochist in their persistence for Levi to notice them since he never, as in NEVER, ever looked at them except when he graced them with his It-is-no-joke-I-really-am-a-hellspawn-don't-even-approach-me-unless-you-wanna-die-the-most-painful-death-ever-known-to-mankind.

To his bewilderment and horror, it never even stopped them. The just... adored him even more? As if that was making any sense. Some shit about him being so mysterious and just kinda like Uchiha Sasuke? The dark hot guy? One way or another, Levi had had enough already of that bullshit.

In short: life was kinda hellish for everyone.

Somehow, it was Kenny that offered them a way out.

Kenny had swallowed his pride and barged into Erwin's office (he was hardly away anymore, which made sense since Survey Corps Academy had more than forty students now) and asked for help. That was how he'd obtained a week-long leave for himself, and Carla so that they'd be able to enjoy a part of their summer vacation as a family. The married couple planned the perfect vacation, road trip, nice hotel with a hot spring close to the sea and various other activities. Everything had been thought of so that the four of them would have every chance of rebuilding whatever relationship they'd had clumsily managed to forge. 

Everything truly was perfect. Absolutely. Perfectly terrifying. How would Levi ever be able to stand his 'family' for that long? He felt nauseous just thinking about it.

The contrary was true to eren, though.

"We'll see the sea?! The real sea?"

Carla once again nodded her head with a gentle smile on her lips as her son jumped everywhere like a goddamned kangaroo. He then clang to Levi's pants and shook the teenager with all his strength.

"Levi! We're going to the sea! It's like a reaaaaaaaaally huge pool but there are waves and salt and...

-And whale sperm, piss, disgusting algae, used condo...

-LEVI!"

Carla's voice made the broody teen shut his mouth but as much as she tried to scold him with her eyes, she also just wanted to laugh.

"I'd forgotten how much of a maniac you are. When I think of it, it makes sense that the ocean would be a real torment instead of paradise to you..."

Meanwhile, Eren furrowed his brows and asked:

"Mommy, what is sperm?"

Kenny promptly ignored Eren's question.

"Well, if you don't wanna go there with us, I understand, but I'd really have liked you to come with us, brat.

-No! If Levi isn't going, I'm not going!"

Levi firmly planted his hand on top of Eren's head.

"Nope. Little boys follow their mother when they go on vacations.

-But Levi, you're a boy, and you're little so why- ouch!"

The raven-haired boy had slapped the back of Eren's head as the two adults barely managed to hide their snickers.

"Why would you stay here, huh? You desperately wanted to go to the sea and now you wanna stay here?

-But it's not the same if you're not there" the boy pouted.

Carla squealed and commented on how freaking adorable the two of them were and Levi wondered how the hell he had gotten stuck in something like that. 

"It'll be the same, Eren, you'll see."

He did NOT want to go on this vacation. Pretend to be a part of a normal, basically perfect family. Have fun on the beach, build sand castles, eat in restaurants and what more? Pillow fights in their hotel room?

God, really?

We he the only one who remembered that Kenny was a fucking ex-assassin? That Carla and Eren were the most suspicious immigrants that had ever lived in Paradiz?

Also, as if it was Levi's style to sunbath, laugh out loud or even just spend more than an hour with someone without feeling suffocated. He barely knew how to live with this overly sweet feeling that was living in a family and he already did all he could to support it, living in the same house as them, so how dare they expect that he would be able to survive anything more?

No, his mental health would not survive it, of that he was sure.

And then, his mental rant was interrupted as Eren took his hand in his own.

They had never held hand before. Never in the year that they had lived together. In all honesty, Levi had thought that he was immune to all the shit the kid could throw his way. Well, to a certain point. His magnetic eyes only held so much power against him, Levi had carried the kid to bed multiple times (even though he didn't fall asleep against his chest anymore), they still played basket, they even had been forced to bath together. They weren't touch starved, far from it, since the kid liked to hug him and stick to him like glue at the most random times. Sometimes to read, draw (way better than he used too, he had to admit, he could sometimes guess what the eight years old was doodling) on his notebooks or just because Eren wanted a hug... but they had never held hands. 

Levi noticed it.

Every single one of his cells had noticed.

All the hair on his arms up to the small ones on his nape raised slightly as he felt as though an electric choc had stricken him. 

He wanted to pull his hand away. Instead, he closed it around Eren's. The kid looked slightly embarrassed as he begged him.

"Please, Levi, come with us. Please... I don't want to be alone..."

An eternity consisting of three seconds passed before Levi even remembered what his name was. An impressing number of emotions had popped into his head and the monstrous mess that resulted completely fried his brain cells. 

Eren cocked his head and slowly started to pull his hand away, completely heartbroken as if Levi's brain glitch meant he had lost. He hadn't even had the time to think about it. He simply held Eren's hand even tighter.

"Wait!"

The teenager felt his breath stuck in his throat has his heart almost stopped beating. He was almost sure that he was having a stroke. 

Eren's hand in his own was probably the only thing that kept him on his feet...

The kid seemed worried as he looked at his older brother.

"You really don't wanna go? You don't feel good? It's okay, Levi, I...

-I will NOT share a room with anyone. Not even him. I will NOT build sand castles and not even THINK that I'll even get close to the disgusting sh... thing that you call the sea. And I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a little spoon than to be naked in the same room as Kenny... not that I know how the hell that's supposed to happen..."

The child's face brightened suddenly. He let go of his hand and ran everywhere.

"Yeah! Levi is coming to the beach! We're going on a vacation! Yeah!"

The black haired teen blinked slowly.

What. The. Fuck. Had just happened? What the fuck had he done?

Carla and Kenny looked at each other with wonder and admiration. 

"Well... you did raise your little demon pretty well, huh?"

The woman slapped his arm playfuly.

"Are you implying that I'm the one that thought him to manipulate to such an extent?

-Tch. Generations of ruthless assassins, a foolproof training, nerves of steel... all beaten by a demonic cute sad face and pleading eyes?"

Carla chuckled with a pleased face. 

"The bigger they are the harder they fall, Kenny. If you hadn't raised Levi to be such a strong-willed and emotionless teenager, he never would have been caught in my little soldier's spider web of feelings and, as you said, cute face and pleading eyes. the secret against steel is the weak spot. Eren is Levi's..."

The teen stared at them with his most Imma-kill-you scary glare. The kind of glare that killed a dead man. Kenny didn't even waver and went as far as smirking.

"We're picking you up after your classes Friday. Be ready, _big brother_ Levi."

* * *

 

Eren did not feel well.

Well, no, it wasn't that. Not quite. He felt okay but something was off. Really, really off, as if there was something missing. Something important. The missing thing was slowly ripping parts of him away and Eren felt ghastly. The only positive aspect of it, if there was any, was that he could focus better at school. Also, since Mikasa had joined his class (the brown haired kid had no idea how she'd managed. After all, she'd never gone to school before) he made new friends. Connie and Sacha. Friends that he was very excited for Armin to meet. He always talked about the duo to his little blond friend in his letters. 

 

The child was restlessly waiting for his friend to come back to finally, finally be able to play basketball and run with him... Once the summer vacation would be over, they'd all be together. Armin would meet Mikasa, Sacha, Connie and everything would be...

His head hurt. A lot. Way too much.

He frowned his eyes from the pain and Mikasa noticed it. She'd barely had the time to see it that she was already all over him, worrying like mother hen she was and gently but hurriedly put her hand on his forehead. 

"Are you okay, Eren? Does your head hurt again?"

The jewelled eyed boy pushed her hand away. He loathed the way that she constantly fussed over him as though he was a baby or something. He groaned.

"It's okay, Mikasa. I'm fine.

-Did you talk about it to auntie Carla?"

Eren pinched his lips. Of course, he hadn't. Things were going so well at home, as if he'd put the precarious peace in danger with such a stupid thing as a head ache and put Kenny under the crossfire. Again.  
So Eren did what he thought logical to calm the girl down before she decided to tell his mother herself. He pretended he was fine and lied, saying he'd only caught sunlight in his eyes. It could have been a believable lie, thought Mikasa, if only the sky hadn't been covered in dark grey clouds. Still, she went with it.

"Then maybe you shouldn't be going to the beach..?

-Mikasa, you're only saying that because you don't want me to go."

She stayed silent. Eren sighed and put his hand on her shoulder. He smiled gently. 

"I'll send you a really cool postcard! And a loooooooooot of reaaally cool souvenirs! You'll see, it's just a week, it'll be over really fast and you'll be able to spend lots of time with your daddy and..."

Her sad face didn't brighten up even one bit. If the boy hadn't been as happy as he was about spending time with Levi, he would have asked her to come with them (and would have had to nag his mother about it for a looooong while until she said yes).

He was still debating whether he should do it or not when they showed up.

Rufus and his little clique. Kids at least eleven years old that kept on bothering him. It was as though defeating Todd's gang to protect Armin had opened Pandora's box. Brutes kept on attacking him, one after the other, as though they were trying to prove something. As if Eren was scared of them. Most of the time, he was delighted. It was all a game to him, he loved a good fight and their foolish aggressiveness gave him an occasion. His blood boiled each and every time... 

But...

Not since he'd met Mikasa. Not since he'd been in the hospital.

It'd been months since he'd seen _red_. Nothing would ever top the energy he'd felt back on that mountain, of course, all the other times had been bland in comparison, but he hadn't felt anything since then. Nothing. Neni.

When he even thought about fighting it felt as though kilos were dropped on him and held him down. He started to feel slow and even more nauseous than he constantly was. Just to make it worse he was not healing super fast anymore. When he fell from Mikasa's bicycle, his scratch had taken forever to heal and he'd had to go to school with a pink band-aid on his knee. The shame he'd felt.

Perhaps that a good fight would make it all better? You know, to wake his powers up?

Eren got up from the swing and squared his shoulders. He could feel Mikasa's dark, scary aura behind him. Lucky him, the five kids in front of him had not heard about the Cerberus. Mikasa's reputation was starting to rise as everyone that had tried to even touch Eren was still bearing marks of the beatings she'd handed them. Everyone was starting to see her as the boy's hellish bodyguard.

Rufus clearly hadn't spoken to anyone about her. One way or another, Eren was delighted. It was a golden opportunity to test his theory. Although he knew that his mind was clearer since he'd lost his superpowers, he missed his cherished strength. He was weaker than he'd ever been before and that did not sit well with him.

Rufus got closer and pushed Eren. The younger boy extended his arm to stop Mikasa from terminating his aggressor. The tall red-hair smirked.

"Oh, Ackerman, I'm sorry, you're so small that I didn't see you."

Eren frowned with disgust. He was pretty sure he'd heard that in the cartoon that aired yesterday night...

"Rufus, I know you live on the West side of Trost. You're far from there so I know you've got nothing to do here. You never even come here, usually.

-So what, Ackerman? Is it your playground? Is there your name on the panel in front of it, 'cause I didn't see it.

-Well, that's because you're so stupid that you can't read."

Eren had a natural talent to rile people up. It was so damn useful to start up a fight...

Until then, Rufus had only pushed him around a little and thrown a few insults. They hadn't even tried to hit him. Eren was scary enough that the younger delinquents were reluctant to attack him directly. However, the child had insulted the red-haired boy in front of his clique. He couldn't let that go.

Eren saw the fist heading towards his face but his body did not follow his brain. Even when the hand collided with his cheek the electrical impulse did not come. His cheek hurt and he hit the dirt. In shock, he stayed on the ground while Mikasa gave the boys the beating of their life. The young boy was in pain and absolutely, utterly mortified. Even though Rufus would be too scared now to even try and touch him again, he felt no joy, knowing that it was Mikasa they'd be afraid of. Angry tears started to gather in his eyes and he rubbed them off aggressively. 

Why was he crying? Hell, _why was **he** crying?_ Since when had he been weak enough to cry over something as stupid as a hit in his face? He'd been in much more pain before, so _why was he crying_?

"Eren, are you okay? I'll rip off all of his teeth if you want me too.

-Stop it, Mikasa! I'm not a baby!"

She clearly wasn't impressed. He was covered in dirt, his eyes were filled with tears and his cheek was already in the way of turning a deep shade of blue. She, despite that, decided to humour him a little so she didn't say anything that the boy would see as insulting. She turned away and told him that they were going back home since Carla could take care of his cheek.

His mom was pissed.

"Oh, wow, good job! Argh, what beautiful family pictures we're gonna have, huh? Look at your face!" She was _not_ happy and it showed not only in her speech but also in the care (or lack thereof) she took to heal his face. At this point, the boy would have prefered if the bruise was left to be healed alone. It clearly was a new punishment. The boy winced when his mother pushed too hard on the bruise when she put some bruise ointment on it.

Kenny, for himself, was very clearly having the time of his life. He held their brand new camera in his hands and smirked.

"Smile~!

-Kenny, don't you dare...

-Oh, come on! It's not every day that Eren comes back home with a war injury. Usually, it's the other kids' mother that come knocking on the door and beg us to keep our wolf on a leash...

-Do NOT compare him to an animal! And there is absolutely nothing to be proud of!

-So Eren, was he tall? Strong? He was older, at least, yeah?

-KENNY!!!!!"

Eren pouted.

"No, he was weak, he was not strong. I don't have my superpowers. If I had them, one kick and I'd have won!

-Your superpowers" Carla repeated after the boy, "were taken from you because you were using them like an idiot. We don't hit people, Eren, how many times do I have to tell you? When we are stronger than others we do like Mikasa. We use our power to protect what's important! The day that you'll be worthy of them, they'll surely come back."

Eren was shocked. Was he really using his powers like an idiot? Sure, he liked to fight and he definitely did what he could to start these fights but... but weren't those brutes villains?

Carla thanked Mikasa and told her to go back home before her father started to worry. She nodded, gave Eren a hug (she held him with so much force that the brown-haired boy couldn't breathe) and reminded him in a gentle voice to not forget her postcard and gifts before leaving.

With a serious looking face, Carla stared at her son, who was frozen in place with a saddened face.

"We're already late because of you! Go fetch you things!"

The boy obeyed without protest. Once he was out of sight, Kenny turned to Carla.

"Look, I don't think right now is a good moment to talk about it but... Eren..."

The woman breathed deeply as her shoulders fell. She faced Kenny, unsure, before determination filled her eyes.

"Kenny, I... I'll tell you everything, both to you and Levi. Our whole story, where we're from why Eren is... I'm sure you'll understand, be able to make sense of it all. I just wanted to be sure, you must understand...

-You needed to know that you could trust us...

-Yes, and i needed to know that you would be strong enough to help me. I want him to grow up in a nice home. I want him to be happy... Eren is... he's my everything..."

Kenny waited for a little, thinking about what the brown-haired woman had just said.

"Carla, what exactly do you need help with?

-Controlling Eren. The older he gets the harder it gets. I won't be strong enough once his Awakening is completed.

-His awakening?..."

They were interrupted when Eren ran down the stairs with his luggage in hand. Carla confirmed that they would complete this conversation later with a small move of her head. The boy, who looked contrite, stopped in front of them.

"I'm sorry, mommy. I won't do it again, I promise..."

When Carla got on her knees in front of her son, Kenny noticed, for the first time, that Carla always made sure to look in her son's eyes no matter what she said to him. As if, by holding eye-contact, she held some sort of all-powerful control over her son. She also always grabbed the boy's hands like she did at this moment or held his shoulder as if she reassured him at the same time.

"Well, if you understood why I'm mad then it's all good. You're a good kid, Eren."

The boy jumped in his mother's arms. She held him and started petting his head.

"I love you, mommy.

-Stop trying to woo me, little monster! You know you are adorable, don't you? Of course, you do!"

She started tickling the boy, who squirmed and laughed as he tried to escape his mom's playful torture.

When they got tired of it, Carla got back up and clicked her tongue. 

"Well. Mommy really doesn't want some family pictures with a huge bruise on her baby's face. So."

Eren's eyes got even wider as he jumped up and down.

"The magic song!"

Carla nodded her head once and her son jumped even higher than he did earlier. She used her boy's hysterical joy to lock eyes with Kenny for a moment. She moved her lips to articulate, without a sound ' _look closely and do. not. move_.' She then looked at her kangaroo impersonating son and asked if he was ready. 

"Yes!

-Security position!"

The boy sat on the ground, his legs crossed and looked at his mother as she copied him. They held hands, exchanged a look and the Carla started singing.

Kenny had never heard anything like this before. To be honest, he wasn't even sure that this language really existed but the song had a little something that was frankly mesmerising. Eren's head started swaying left and right as though he truly was mesmerised. Then a light appeared in the boy's eyes and Kenny noticed for the first time that it had gone away for a few months. It had always been there, he had never questioned it and had never noticed it when it left but now that it was back the man understood that Eren's calm attitude had something to do with this. He noted somewhere in the back of his head that Levi had always known that something was wrong with the calm version of the boy. Kenny's attention was brought back to the present when Carla started singing in a different intonation. He stopped looking at the boy to look at his wife and... There, in Carla's eyes...

The same light was shining.

The song slowly lost in intensity before becoming low enough to be innaudible. A growl, not unlike the purrs of a huge wildcat, was then heard. A higher pitched noise, very similar to the first one but more 'childish', joined the growl. Both Carla and Eren had small pupils and overly huge irises. Gold and emerald green lost themselves in each other. In Eren's eyes, tiny blue specs appeared. But Kenny wasn't focusing on Eren's eyes. Oh, no. No, the bruise was far more interesting.

Or, rather, the lack of it. 

It was disapearing fast, turning greenish then yellow and then it was gone. Carla's growl, well, what Kenny believed to be Carla's growl, stopped as she suddenly got up and raised one of her arms. Eren literal jumped up and _attacked_ his mother. She snaped her fingers and Eren fell. He looked... asleep, for lack of a better word, although he was clearly awake. Carla slowly guided the boy back in a sitting position before saying, in a soft voice:

"Eren. When I say your name again, you will forget everything that happened and you will let the _other_ sleep... you remember? In the basement."

The kid nodded his head slowly. The light in the woman's eyes was almost estinguished and as tired as the woman's general body language.

"Very well. You're a good kid... now wake up, Eren."

The boy's body shook lightly and then a disarming, charming smile apeared on the boy's face.

"My head's not hurting anymore! Thank you mommy!"

This time, when the boy jumped towards his mother, he simply wraped his arms around her neck. Carla held him close against herself and focused her stare on Kenny. The Ackerman still hadn't moved one bit since Carla had told him not to. To think that he'd believed his clan to be cursed... clearly, he needed to rethink everything he thought to be true when it came to misfortune. It was clear that the Jeagers were the loosers, or winners? Of the most unlucky family to ever grase the surface of this world. 

Kenny sighed. 

"Well. We'll be late because of all your bullshit. Let's go pick Levi up. Now take your luggage and get in the car."

Kenny wouldn't say anything else. Not untill Carla told him everything else. She looked grateful for it. It kind of freaked him out thatshe knew, without him saying it, that he would never abandon them for so little.

After all, they were his family.


	10. Crack (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hey there you guys! (Sips some tea) How are y'all? Well, I for myself have just started a new job that I absolutely loathe and it steals so. Much. Of my damn time and I don't think that the next chapter will be out before the end of the month, although I will try to have it done as soon as possible! I swear! Anyways, enjoy, don't hesitate to drop a kudo or comment if you liked it and if you see any mistakes please point them out! :)

Levi felt... nervous.

Nauseous.

Not comfortable in his own skin.

He was not the kind of person to go back on is words but hells did he feel like slapping himself. His brain's defection had been haunting him for at least two nights. How had he even managed to put himself in that kind of situation? All he had had to do was say no. A. Simple. No. 

No. A two letters word. And to make it even worse, these two letters were almost his friends. He said them oh so often, sometimes even just with his eyes. He was used to refusing stupid shit. 

He didn't like something? He didn't do it.

He didn't want something? He refused it. 

So what the **hell** had happened this time?

"Mister Ackerman? Mister Ackerman? Ackerman!" 

Levi looked up. He'd been looking at his notebook for at least 20 minutes, he noticed. Well.

He'd been staring at it. With his frowned eyebrows. And lasers in his eyes. And the promise that if the lasers had been real, there would be a crater all the way up to the centre of Mare.

And it was that stare that he put on his history teacher. The poor man seemed to lose all the courage it must have taken to even call Levi's name and visibly deflated. The teacher's eyes fell to the ground and he started twitching.

"What. Do you want?

-I... hum... it's... your turn to, hum, read the page..."

Only then did the teenager notice that the open book in front of him was his Math's one. Oh, that day...

The teacher looked at Levi's notebook before finally looking at the teenager's face. Their eyes met, the man seemed lost and then he declared:

"It's alright, I'll.. ask someone else to read..."

Hange started cackling as the teacher asked one of the normal rich kid to read instead. Said rich kid was glad to be chosen, seeing as it gave him an opportunity for even more ass-licking. As for Levi, he only sighed and stared at Gunther.

"Oi, idiot, why didn't you tell me we were switching class?

-It wasn't my job, Captain, Moblit is you Math's partner. Also, you looked so focused, I didn't want to disturb you so I let you think."

Well.

Levi couldn't dispute Gunther's logic. 

Moblit, knowing that Erwin wanted Levi to be the perfect recruit in everything, came with the idea of partnering the moody teenager with the best CK in each different subject. Since Levi was already the best in all physical disciplines and gifted in everything else, the idea that he might become even better if he received the help of the best students was not so far fetched. Everyone was pretty chill with the idea. They really, really wanted to crush the Elites and making Levi even more of a perfect student was the perfect way to do it. 

However, in the last few days, Levi had been so distracted that a bird might have had more concentration than the raven. SO distracted that Eld had almost won one of their spars (that is before Levi gained his senses back and sent the other boy get acquainted with the cracks in the dojo's wall).

Eventually, the teenager got his History book and started taking notes. The end of the class came quickly.

Sighing for the who-knows-how-many-time this morning, Levi looked at his planing (because apparently, he couldn't even remember it anymore) while Gunther had left for the bathroom. He almost banged his head when he saw that the next class was...

Hanji sat next to him and dropped her things in a theatrical manner on the table in front of her.

... Physics/Chemistry.

Suddenly, Levi felt the urge to have a knife in his hand. Preferably a KA-BAR Becker BK7 combat knife, kinda long, comfortable and black (Levi liked his blades to be black, it seemed so much more hygienic...). Hanji had shivers running down her spine.

"Woah, Levi, you are clearly the only person I know that can tell people how he wants to kill them just by using his eyes!"

She shut up for a moment and slowly raised a trembling finger (Levi knew very well that Hanji being Hanji, it was not from fear):

"Wait, let me translate that, there was a knife? And you cut my head?

-I only slit your throat in a clean cut but you are making progress..."

The girl laughed and Levi, once again, wondered whether Hanji's madness was a benediction or the bane of his existence. There were so many downsides to Hanji being Hanji, but with who else could he have that kind of conversation without the poor soul fleeing the country by swimming to the nearest continent?

Hanji eventually laughed a little less as the other CK surrounded them and talked quietly. Well, as quietly as possible when the CK were involved, which meant, obviously, that they were screaming at each other and throwing punches...

"So, what did Eren do?"

Levi stared at the girl with as much ill-will as though she'd stepped on his foot. 

"Uh?"

Hanji shit-eating grin reached her ears.

"Only Angel can manage to make you that crippled and, seeing how you've been acting the last two days, I'd say he must have done something seriously huge to get you in that state...

-What the fuck are you even saying?"

Too preoccupied with Hanji's too-close-to-the-truth observations, Levi didn't notice how every Criminal Kids had calmed down to listen to their conversation. Oluo saw it as the perfect opportunity to speak up.

"Hanji's totally right! The last we went to your house to study, Eren tried to scale the tree in your backyard and ended up falling from it. A six meters high fall. The next day, Captain, you were so out of it that you almost broke one of my teeth..."

Then Eld added to Oluo's statement.

"Not only that! Remember that time Eren got back home with teeth marks from a dog? We spent the whole weekend chasing the neighbourhood's strays and I've still got the scars from that bulldog. I piss myself everytime I see one of these fuckers now...

-..." 

Levi frowned. 

Sure, these stories probably held some truth somewhere but Levi wasn't convinced that the brat had anything to do with any of this. After all, capturing rampant dogs and getting them to an animal shelter was some sort of public service, wasn't it?

And then Petra had to add her own anecdote.

"Also, remember that time when Eren and Armin somehow got involved with some bikers' business? By the gods, I've never been more afraid of being put back in jail in my whole life...

-The police weren't doing anything! I was our damn job to step in, no????"

At that point, Hanji was almost purple and pathetic snickers escaped her sporadically.

"Well, nah, it wasn't, I mean, we did put on costumes to go and beat up a bunch bank robbers before delivering them all tied up on the police station's front door..."

Eld groaned out:

"But what in the seven hells were two six years old even doing in a crumbling warehouse?

-Eren was starting to explore further at the time... poor Armin learned his lesson and kept them both out of abandoned dubious places."

Eld then put his hand on Levi's shoulder.

"Look, Captain, I like the both of you enough to put up with your shit but... I really, _really_ don't wanna end up in jail so do something! Tie him up, lock him up, I don't even care but find a goddamn way to keep the kid out of trouble! All of our freedoms and security depend on it!"

Everyone seemed to agree except Hanji, which was really saying something. Instead, she replied:

"Aww, you guys are no fun! I love Angel, he all of our lives so much brighter and beautiful and happier! Right, Moblit?

-Yeah, hum, Hanji? We clearly don't have the same definition for a beautiful and happy life."

Levi mumbled out that he understood. 

"Fine. One way or another, I've been thinking about getting a chain a collar to keep him out of harm's way for a while now...

-Oh, my GOD! That is so HOT!"

The raven-haired teen's arm lunged for Hanji's throat with the precision and celerity of a snake after its prey. He squeezed his fingers around the girl trachea and she started to do some choking noises.

"Let me get those disgusting ideas out of your head four-eyes..."

Moblit and Eld both had to use all their force to finally save Hanji from Levi's wrath. Petra sighed and decided to change subjects.

"Oookay, so that happened. Now, Captain, why don't you just tell us what's wrong? It's way easier to take care of problems when we know what they are.

-Yeah, tell us what Eren did this time?" said Hanji with a broken voice, hiding behind Moblit's large build. 

Levi knew that the girl's voice hadn't truly been that affected. He wasn't trying to kill her, if the other boys hadn't stopped him the girl would just have stopped breathing for 10 minutes 30 seconds exactly and then Levi would have released the pressure points and the girl would have woken up. With a bit of luck, it would have fixed a few loose screws in her brain. Anyways, it was useless to keep on like this, the others clearly wouldn't let go until he told them what was bothering him.

"Kenny's taking us to the beach."

Silence.

"Hum, that's all? You're going on a vacation?"

Moblit seemed blaséd as hell as he said this. As for Oluo, he looked grave.

"Moblit, wait a sec. You're clearly not paying enough attention! They're all going to the beach, and who says beach says

-Gorgeous bimbos with huge boobs and small bikinis."

Petra's fists were closed and her eyes were shooting lightning as she came to that conclusion. Another silence followed the ginger's statement, which was broken by Oluo.

"Well, yes but not _just_ that...

-Oh, oh, I know, I know!!"

Levi sighed and pointed her.

"Hanji?

-Germs! Pollution! Abrasive for the skin sodium chloride! Human dejections and other fluids, cats' and dogs' dejections, ..."

Petra put her hand on Hanji lips when their Captain changed colours from his normal skin complexion to white then greenish then almost blue.

"It's fine Hanji, we got what you were saying.

-Well, Levi, why don't you just say no? Kenny would understand."

The nut-case removed the hand from her face to answer Eld's comment.

"That's where Eren intervenes, I guess..."

Silence.

"Oh. My god! Eren is so strong! How does he do that! Can you really not refuse him anything? I am so jealous!"

Levi raised an eyebrow.

"Jealous? Of Eren? Petra?"

The girl turned a deep shade of red and all of a sudden, everyone started to feel pity for the poor girl.

"Uh, I mean, that's..."

Oluo saved Petra from further humiliation.

"Well, it's almost like Eren has a superpower or something ao there's that. Also, the Captain's awesome, really strong, the coolest dude we know so, of course, anyone would be jealous of Eren for having him as an older brother."

_Silence._

"Oluo, come here for a sec, I've got the urge to clean the sole of my boots with your face..."

Levi's face as he said that was a mix of choc and disgust. Uther disgust, to be more precise. 

Petra spoke on his behalf.

"Oluo's really sorry for how much it sounded...

-... borderline gay? Disturbingly close to a love confession?

-Um... yeah, actually. Everything you said, Eld."

Thankfully, the Science teacher chose this moment to enter the classroom and that awful conversation finally ended.

No C.K. even mentioned Levi's vacation except for Hanji, who, for the entirety of their lunch break, kept on asking when the black-haired teenager and his family were leaving. The boy eventually answered 'tonight'. He suddenly palled and pushed his food away, saying that he wasn't hungry anymore.

* * *

 

 

 

Levi had never dreaded leaving school as much as he did at that moment.

In fact, he dragged his feet all the way to the school's door and his misfit group of friends was surrounding him as though they were escorting him to his death while trying to cheer him up.

"You can do it, captain! Ain't no way a beach can finish you off!

-Yeah, and sleeping in a room that's not our own isn't so bad, we get used to it.

-Yo, Eld, unless you wanna catch some sort of STD that's gonna kill you, you'd better start sleeping in your own damn room...

-Gunther! What the hell, man, you were NOT supposed to say that in front of EVERYONE! What's said between roommates stay between roommates or something like that!"

Moblit cleared his throat.

"Forgive me for my vulgarity, Eld, but we all know that you're a real slut. It's really not a secret."

Yet another uncomfortable silence, this time at the school's front doors. Levi was not moving, didn't even seem to be breathing. Hanji put her hand on his shoulder.

"We can stay with you until they get here, Captain...

-No, get the fuck out. You've laughed all fucking day because of this, so enough."

The CK shared looks behind the boy's back and all scattered away, waving at Levi. He looked at them as they left for the Arcade. It was Friday night, and for the last two years they'd almost always go to the Arcade Friday nights.

Levi walked to a nearby bench and sat on it. He looked at the sky. Not a cloud in sight. The sky was a blinding blue and it was warm outside. Too warm for Levi's taste. The teen did not like the summer. 

Just like all other Ackermans, his anatomy seemed to have been designed for the winter instead. Also, summer meant hot temperatures, and hot temperatures meant sweat and sweat. Was. Incredibly. Disgusting. 

He grabbed the front of his t-shirt and fanned himself by playing with it. His head fell back and he stayed like that, eyes closed, for a little while. Then a too-warm wave hit him and his whole skin started prickling uncomfortably. He got up in a hurry.

"Fucking summer!"

He moved to the shadow created by a tree and leaned on its trunk. Already better. He'd have to let Mono-brow know to plant a tree next to the bench. Levi let himself slide from the trunk so that he was sitting with his back to it. 

He'd been sleeping like shit for the past two days, so in addition to being nervous, he was exhausted. Sleep had evaded him. However, perhaps because Levi knew it was too late to get out of the trip, at this moment he felt no more tension. He let his head rest against the trunk and allowed himself to close his eyes again. He stayed there for a while, in that state where you are not quite awake but not asleep either. His whole body, all of his muscles, relaxed.

Why had he been that panicked, really? It was just for a week. Kenny wouldn't dare to try and force him to do something he didn't want to do. He wouldn't even have to get close to the beach. Carla would tease him, of course, but it wouldn't be different from usual. And Eren... (a small, genuine smile danced on his thin lips)... oh, how excited would the brat be to see the sea for the first time? Somewhere between about-to-go-bat-shit-crazy and I-need-a-defibrillator-my-heart-couldn't-handle-that-overdose-of-happiness.

Yes, looking back Levi might have a (little bit) over-reacted when he'd heard family vacation. It had sounded seemed like some monstrous aberration at the time. Something he'd never dared hope for, ever. But... no, there hadn't been any reasons to get so worked up over it. Why had he gotten so worked up over it? Because it was all so different? He did like his routine, his habits. And sometimes it felt like he was still trapped between four walls, looking at the outside world from a small, dirty window.

But Kenny had cleaned up the dirt, did what he could to make that room as good as it could get. 

Erwin had openned the door.

His friends had dragged him outside and showed him how good the outside world could feel.

Carla and Kenny had given him a new home, and Eren...

Eren had dragged him under the light and destroyed what remained of the old four walls with the strength of a hurricane. 

 

With a true, happy smile, Levi fell asleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

His eyes opened suddenly. His internal clock told him he'd been sleeping for far too long. 

He straightened his back, stretched his limbs and looked around himself. He stared at the pink and orange sky.

 

The sun was setting...

 

The sun was setting and it was summer.

What time could it possibly be? Levi looked at his wristwatch and his heart started beating faster.

 

20:30.

 

His heart was now beating erratically.

They were supposed to be there at 16:30. Kenny should have woken him from his nap underneath the tree four hours ago with a good shake or kick to his butt but here he was. Kenny was never late. Never. He was always right on time, he was as maniacal when it came to being punctual as Levi was with keeping his things clean, so why...?

Levi wasn't feeling well.

The teenager tried to stay calm. There was no use in getting worked up. Surely, there must have been an explanation behind this, so he grabbed his cell phone from his backpack's pocket. His hands were shaking. The raven gritted his teeth and looked at his missed calls. A lot were from Hanji and Erwin. No... they were ALL from Hanji and Erwin. None were from Kenny or Carla. All 30+ missed calls. 

The world was getting smaller around Levi and his vision started getting darker and darker, more and more unclear. He pressed on one of the buttons to call Hanji back and put the device next to his ear. The girl answered the call in a panicked voice.

"Hello? Levi? Is that you? Where are you?

-In... in front of the school.

-Good, we're not far from there! Do NOT go anywhere, we're coming to get you."

Hanji had ended the call before he could say anything else. Levi didn't move, the dark fog clouding his vision still not clearing. 

The bright lights of Erwin's car got him out of his trance.

Night had now completely fallen and Levi was still in the same spot. Hanji got out of the car and ran to him.

 

She didn't have to tell him. Deep inside, Levi already knew. He was already feeling the cold, unforgiving pain that one felt when  _she_ leaned on your shoulder to gently tell you that it wasn't your turn yet. Oh, Levi knew how it felt when the Grim Reaper executed _her_ orders. He knew that the only thing that could ever prevent Kenny from being on time...

 

_Hanji was shaking him._

_"Levi! There was an accident! You've gotta go to the hospital before it's too late."_

 

...was Lady Death herself.


End file.
